Volunteering
Thanks for your help with Hackers On Planet Earth
Volunteers make HOPE possible. This is a summary of some of the roles for the conference - we are not covering everything here, because several teams of volunteers have their own internal organization.
General Facilitators
- Join the Matric community rooms for attendees, presenters and volunteers. Also join Mozilla Hubs and any other interactive forums. Join/monitor as many or as few as you are comfortable with.
- Monitor chats in the forums.
- Respond to inquiries when you are able (especially the Tech Support forum).
- Forward inquiries you cannot address: refer to helpdesk2020@helpdesk.hope.net, or you can use the volunteer rooms to try to find someone to help.
- If there is a problem that looks like a Code of Conduct issue, email conduct @hope.net (screen shots and other details are appreciated) or make an RT ticket in the CoC queue. Immediately alert moderators so that bans/ejections/moderation may take place without delay.
As a general facilitator, your job is to help ensure an excellent conference experience for everyone. The approach is to be helpful and supportive, to listen, and to help get the best response.
EmCees
- be in the Zoom "room" 10-20 minutes before the session to meet the speaker and facilitator (note that some sessions will not have facilitators, in which case EmCees must also cover that role).
- briefly introduce the session: use the abstract & bio from the program (just < 1 minute: don't read the whole thing!).
- possibly a few seconds of announcements, if there are any important ones.
- watch the presentation.
- bring audience questions to the presenter, at the end (via chat, via the facilitator/helper if there is one).
- have your own questions handy in case there no audience questions.
- make sure things end on time, at 50 minutes after the hour.
Facilitators in Talks
- Arrive in the meeting "room" 10-20 minutes before the talk starts to meet with MC & speaker(s).
- Provide or seek technical support if the speaker is having any issues or has requests.
- During the presentation, monitor Matrix chat (possibly other forums, including emails) for audience questions.
- Select the "best" questions: highly ranked/reviewed, intelligent...
- Route questions by text to the emcee.
- If there is time, invite questioners to join the Zoom conference to ask their question live (the Broadcast Coordinator will handle the Zoom conference).
- If/when time runs out, provide any remaining interesting questions by email/chat to the speaker, if they are interested.
Facilitators in Workshops as Helpers
All helpers need to have BigBlueButton (BBB) logins. Start at https://workshops.hope.net - this is necessary to be a room moderator.
- Arrive in the meeting "room" around 20 minutes before the workshop starts to meet with the presenter and assist with room setup. Make sure any needed content is uploaded, and any external videos are available.
- Using Moderator features of BBB, admit registered attendees to the room. Make sure they are on the registration list, which will be sent to you shortly before the workshop begins.
- Provide or seek technical support if the presenter is having any issues or has requests.
- During the workshop, monitor the room chat, and help attendees if you are able.
- If there are issues, help to address them, or raise them with the appropriate team (technical issues, behavioral issues, etc.) - likely in Matrix chat rooms.
- For long-running workshops, it might not be necessary to stay for the whole thing (but it would be great if you could), once everything is working smoothly.
More information about BigBlueButton is on the Wiki: https://wiki.hope.net
Technical Support
- Monitor the Matrix chat, respond to questions there.
- Monitor the helpdesk ticketing queue, respond to questions there.
- Engage with presenters and attendees for in-depth technical support, when necessary.
- If you notice trends or recurring problems, post solutions to the Wiki and raise concerns with the appropriate technical team via the Matrix chat.
