Here's an idea that may go to meta but I think the wider audience of general is a better place, lately while I create the newsletter I get the feeling that it's becoming a link aggregator, don't get me wrong, the resources are great, some of the conversations about links are really interesting and this week there were at least 3 conversations that started without links which I find really nice. But my thought was that I wanted to see more of what you are doing/designing, even in small increments, maybe for some the feedback channel is a big monster that requires bret victor style demos or maybe is some impostor syndrome or something but I would like to see more of your stuff! That's why I want to propose a weekly activity for FoC (open to feedback on the format): W*eekly status update of what you have been working on, thinking, designing, setting up, what you did and what you plan to achieve next week. I propose the default format to be a video*, even if it's to a static image, I feel that video can be consumed in more contexts than text and people are less blocked by an open mic than an empty page. I propose the default length to be 2 minutes. If someone wants to write instead it's ok, but I can watch the videos while I cook, while I have breakfast or on the couch, reading requires (at least for me) a more specific setup and mindset, also it's good to get to know other people, at least their voices and to start training your presentation skills 🙂 what do you think? should we use the feedback channel or create a #standup channel of sorts?

I like this idea. I've been using lobste.rs for this (e.g. https://lobste.rs/s/rflwcj/what_are_you_doing_this_week#c_pz2abf) but I always feel a bit guilty because I'm only able to read a tiny fraction of the many other comments. Here the community is small enough and focused enough that I would probably read all the responses for the foreseeable future.

When I make video demo for unknown audience I need to provide context, explain why this is necessary, what was done before. I need to prepare proper visuals that would help to understand. It takes time. If I am making video demo for audience that has the context and follow my project, then I can make video real quick. Just show what was done, how it works. Probably that's what @Mariano Guerra is talking about Although I like this idea and likely would participate in something like this, but I see following issues: 1. Would anyone be interested in all these small technical work-in-progress issues? Imagine that we have 10 different projects in newsletter. Wouldn't it turn into a noise? 2. These progress reports would be good for people who have context. Let say new person subscribes to a newsletter. How he will get the context? It means that there must be some page where all these progress reports are assembled, so person can catch up.

@Vladimir Gordeev good point, the discussion of a wiki in the neighboring https://futureofcoding.slack.com/archives/C5T9GPWFL/p1586704918342300 takes on new relevance.

@Vladimir Gordeev like with youtube and the internet at large, people will pick what content they are interested 🙂 a "landing page" for the project with a short description and maybe a summary video would be a good thing to have for the new ones that want to get "up to speed" with a project, that page could even link to all the status updates in order. regarding noise, I can collapse all status updates into a single section of the newsletter with the author and a title of the status with a link to the video.

I feel like this is a thing our community could start doing. A thing deserves a name. #standup is not bad, but it feels off-the-mark. I'd love to have a dedicated channel, and to include our call for this in the website's /community page.

"Unevenly distributed"? Reference to the William Gibson quote.

(That'd be an amazing name for a lo-fi synth tape distro, a la Border Community or Not Not Fun) (It would also be choice to use that name for something in the community. Maybe the wiki?)

yes, I think the format is important, constraint are good, it allows everyone to keep up to date and everyone has the same "airtime", like FoC TikTok 😛

Anyone here opposed to #two-minute-week? (Ideally, with a better alternative that we'll all love)

I like this idea as well, and #two-minute-week sounds at least fine ;) As for the problem with summaries vs progress-updates, the format could give even more structure: for example the first 30s as a "recap from scratch", the rest of the video for weekly progress. For bigger changes in project direction or progress the intro can be re-made over time or otherwisd reused the following week. Sadly there is no more support for cards to skip to a position in a YouTube video, but a custom player could fix that...

Maybe it is a good idea to have the updates posted all on the same day of the week (a time-zone-friendly 24h window). This induces pressure for people to post things that a “post any time” model wouldn’t.

I'm fine doing it in a low effort way. When I joined it was impossible for me to share what I was working on because it was all job stuff that wasn't public, so I had to vaguely talk about my philosophy and interest. Now I'm working on some small, not super interesting but useful to me, tools that I can share semi-regular progress screen shots. Maybe I'll share sketches as well. I don't post in feedback because I don't want feedback on anything I'm working on. It's all personal and only really needs to serve me

I'm keen to share and get feedback on my work in progress for sure. I've been thinking about how to do video/twitch/youtube for a while now, so that might be an interesting adventure 😉 Sounds like a great idea to me.

Probably people would like to react to these two-minute-week videos. Should we post link to a Slack thread with the video right into newsletter?

yes, I will post a link to the video with a title/summary and a link to the thread (it would help if the author provides the title/summary 🙂)

I'm thinking I'll just call mine "Week 1, Week 2, Week 3" since I'm not really doing sprints or anything, I'm just working on things for as long as they take. Anyone else planning to make a video for the channel? (I'm assuming you're all waiting for the imaginary construct known as "the end of the week")

@Ivan Reese I will definitely make one, just have to get around to it ;) (and wait for some things I want to mention to be wrapped up)

I plan to make one

imaginary construct guy here 🙂

Yes, I'll make one; is there a channel now?

Thanks 😉

I think I need to buy a better microphone 😅. I'm also trying to summarise the progress of my project more broadly so I can situate my videos (and start a blog as well).

@Nick Smith if you have a decent webcam (and you are not using it to record video already), you can try using it as a microphone a bit more close-up ;)

Ah, I didn't think of that. I have a reasonably good webcam... I should test out its audio quality!

Yeah, the trick about microphones is that you want them as close to your mouth as possible, ideally about 1" to 4" away (it varies depending on the mic). If the mic doesn't have any wind protection (eg: your breathing sounds loud), you can put it off to the side of your mouth so that it's out of the direct path of air. Even a bad mic up close will make speech easier to understand than a good mic at a distance.

@Ivan Reese How do you edit videos? i.e. which software do you use? Not something I've really done. Was thinking iMovie on Mac as a first try; but whatever...?

A) I put together a page of info you may find helpful: https://futureofcoding.org/two-minute-week B) I will expand that page based on our discussion I personally use Final Cut Pro X to edit videos, and (sometimes) Ableton Live to process audio. I also kill mosquitoes with a flamethrower robot, yes. iMovie is fine, I used it for years. But what I recommend is just rehearsing your video, and recording every rehearsal as though it were the real thing. It's a two minute video, so you could probably do 5 rehearsals in 15 minutes. By that 5th one, your delivery will be smooth, exciting, and not need editing (unless you're trying to do multiple cameras or something — in that case, yeah, iMovie is great). That's how I did my two minute video — rehearse it with a stopwatch until it was consistently under 2 minutes, and tight enough that I felt good about what to say and do.

Like @Mariano Guerra, I am also an imaginary construct guy. And, unfortunately, these times, I am very very busy in some non future of coding project (yes it is sad, but at least I use this as case study for FoC), which keeps me from coming here as often as I want and keeps me from doing thos 2 minutes videos. But I would be happy to try this medium! Hope I will have more time for all this (and to actually work on FoC projects, first of all) in a few months, maybe in June (and maybe full time, I can't wait).