Video conferencing is a fantastic tool for collaborating in realtime and sparking organic conversations that often don't emerge in a chat environment. This document outlines when video conferencing is appropriate and when a more durable medium should be used instead.
- Community meet and greet meetings
- Office hours
- Brainstorming activities
- Difficult for non-native English speakers
- Difficult to quickly catch up on after the fact
- Attendance is difficult for those not in common timezones (e.g. Pacific Time (PT) versus Marquesas Time (MART))
- The organizer needs to act as the moderator to make sure all voices are heard. It is often particularly difficult to speak up in a large video conference where there are few / no pauses in the discussion. Consider letting participants know they can raise their hand if they want to queue up to speak.
- If the discussion has a particular outcome, this should be summarized and documented elsewhere. Meeting notes can be committed to GitHub repos or posted to mailing lists if appropriate.
- Video should be recorded and posted in a place where community members can both view and easily find it.