4 ms·

It's a shame BoS have started selling the videos of talks when most conferences are going in the other direction and releasing videos for free. Given that many

by ig1 13y ago

It's a shame BoS have started selling the videos of talks when most conferences are going in the other direction and releasing videos for free. Given that many speakers are doing so to contribute back to the community and build their own reputations it would be nice if conferences like BoS would be run by the community for the sake of the community rather than by commercial entities. I'd be curious to know what percentage of the video sales price goes to the speakers as royalties.

marklittlewood 13y ago
BoS releases all of the talks for free within a year of them being made. We, like many organisations are working hard to find a sustainable business model for content. In some cases, the speakers ask that we do not release the talk fro free. We do not share royalties with the speakers but then the cost of preparing the videos is far in excess of the revenue we make from selling early access. If you have been to BoS you would know how community minded it is. It takes a huge amount of work to put something like BoS on and to be honest, we think we do a pretty good job of hosting and producing an event that is both very different and refreshingly uncommercial in outlook.
- ig1 13y ago
  I've been involved with running events so I appreciate that things like venues, staffing, speaker expenses, etc can build up to a considerable amount and that those costs have to be met somehow. If it's a case of the event not being financially sustainable without additional non-ticket revenue then maybe charging for videos is what has to be done, but if the videos aren't bringing in a significant revenue stream while presumably significantly reducing the number of viewers I'd have to ask if that's a worthwhile trade-off ? Obviously the answer for that is going to be different if you're optimising for profit or for community benefit, but that's why I'd rather have community events run sustainably by non-profits than on a purely commercial for-profit basis. [I have no issues with videos being charged for / with-held at the speakers request though]
dudurocha 13y ago
If they do depend on the sales of BoS videos, I'll not complain, Although, BoS is one of the best conferences I won't be able to go, and I would love to watch the keynotes for free.
- marklittlewood 13y ago
  We hope you will always get to watch the keynotes for free, even if they are released over the course of the year. In most cases they are though we may get asked to not release a video to the public if a speaker has said something that they wish they hadn't, in one case a speaker discussed a company that they then started teaching an MBA class on and realized that the students could just watch the video instead of doing the classes, someone was once very unintentionally indiscreet about a co-founder and some investors... We try to respect the wishes of the speakers.

by ig1 13y ago

marklittlewood 13y ago

BoS releases all of the talks for free within a year of them being made. We, like many organisations are working hard to find a sustainable business model for content. In some cases, the speakers ask that we do not release the talk fro free. We do not share royalties with the speakers but then the cost of preparing the videos is far in excess of the revenue we make from selling early access. If you have been to BoS you would know how community minded it is. It takes a huge amount of work to put something like BoS on and to be honest, we think we do a pretty good job of hosting and producing an event that is both very different and refreshingly uncommercial in outlook.

ig1 13y ago
I've been involved with running events so I appreciate that things like venues, staffing, speaker expenses, etc can build up to a considerable amount and that those costs have to be met somehow. If it's a case of the event not being financially sustainable without additional non-ticket revenue then maybe charging for videos is what has to be done, but if the videos aren't bringing in a significant revenue stream while presumably significantly reducing the number of viewers I'd have to ask if that's a worthwhile trade-off ? Obviously the answer for that is going to be different if you're optimising for profit or for community benefit, but that's why I'd rather have community events run sustainably by non-profits than on a purely commercial for-profit basis. [I have no issues with videos being charged for / with-held at the speakers request though]

dudurocha 13y ago

If they do depend on the sales of BoS videos, I'll not complain, Although, BoS is one of the best conferences I won't be able to go, and I would love to watch the keynotes for free.

marklittlewood 13y ago
We hope you will always get to watch the keynotes for free, even if they are released over the course of the year. In most cases they are though we may get asked to not release a video to the public if a speaker has said something that they wish they hadn't, in one case a speaker discussed a company that they then started teaching an MBA class on and realized that the students could just watch the video instead of doing the classes, someone was once very unintentionally indiscreet about a co-founder and some investors... We try to respect the wishes of the speakers.