Okay?
Oh
My god, we're here are we here finally?
Okay, mr. Manuel here for off the hook Kyle either
Say something. I got to use your voice. No, okay
I wasn't tearing his hair out trying to get the radio station answer the damn phone and here we are
Connected finally Wow eight minutes lost. Thanks guys
Okay
It's off the hook
And we're in the middle of a corona virus. So things are going a little crazy in the broadcasting world. That's for sure
We are going to also be joined by
Rob Rob, are you there over Skype?
No, he's not there
What's going on Kyle? I don't know. Okay, you guys were testing this for a half hour beforehand and now it doesn't work
Okay, so are they just being silent or how you got to talk to me
What are we supposed to what are you guys there? Can you hear me? I don't think they can hear me
All right, so we just discovered that Skype doesn't work great
You know what I'm prepared to go by myself if that's what it takes until the technology starts starts working again
I'll tell you what. We have a conference coming up this
This was starting this weekend and it's going for a full nine days and our technology works
we know because well, we've been using it a lot more and testing it a lot more and
It's it's it's professional
and
we
We're doing something special tonight
For supporters of the radio station for those of you listening who want to go to the hope conference. Yes is a virtual conference
but you can go to it in various ways by
participating online and
Attending talks attending workshops attending performances being part of our massive chat
It's something that lots and lots of people have have
Chosen to take part in it's incredible because we thought that the conference was doomed
we thought that we were doomed and then all of a sudden this outpouring of support ideas innovation and
We we were able to put this together. Okay
Can you please tell us all what's going on because this is insane
It's like dealing with the Soviet Union trying to figure out who died too much. Yeah way
Way too much. We have a technical audience would like to know exactly what we're dealing with. So tell them
the audio interface is
Having negotiations with the voice over IP client that we're using. Uh-huh, and they're not going well
They seem to be breaking down at one point
Our guests could hear at which point I decided it was a good time to connect to the station I have
Because we're remote we're using a phone obviously and phones can do magical things
That phone has an inflating battery and needs to be kept cool
Yeah, the phone almost exploded the other day. So I had to go into the crisper in their fridge and pull it out
And and boot it up right before the show
And as I was you had a slice of pizza by accident you thought it was it was in the same type of wrapping
Yeah, so we were actually trying to go on the air with a slice of pizza a frozen pizza
We've we discovered that quickly enough. It looked the same
I haven't eaten or slept very much either because I'm doing all kinds of
Pre-production and stuff that all our volunteers are doing. We're three days away from the conference and it's a nine-day conference. Yeah
And we're not on next week folks
So if you think you're tuning in to to see what our mental state is then
You'll have to look at the conference because we'll be back here in two weeks for our own sanity
We can't be on next week in the middle of a conference
yeah, and that's good because there's a lot of important fundraising and stuff going on at WBA I a lot of the community is
excited about signing up becoming a BA I buddy and
Making sure that the station continues so that we can do specials like this so that we can
Bring in people to the hacker and technological community and talk about the craziness of video conferencing and setting up
Hardware and software a special truncated show so all the technical difficulties getting on the air
So anyway to continue with with with your woes here, so you had this this ballooning
Battery, oh yeah, so we're using a mobile
reporting app that is
Fairly common, but that that phone is is
Waiting for a new battery and at this point
Dangerous you can't just order things anymore you have to order and wait things are slow takes two weeks to get anything overnight
I'm trying to get stuff
I expected it would have been here, but you know all the issues of 2600 magazine for summer now wait
This is summer spring the spring issue
They were lost in Canada all of them all of them. I think all of them because pretty much everybody's complaining to us
Yeah, and that it's really upsetting to us. They don't know where they went they they went out in I think it was
It's all blur now. I think it was April it went out and that's of course when everything hit the fan, so yeah
It's it's been something, but continue with this with this
No, okay, so the app and everything that we use for our remote broadcasting capacity as many producers and
Programming is done these days
The software wasn't connecting and I checked with the engineer. We've been so good at this
We have such a great team at WBAI and and with off the hook
That as I said the video conferencing was set up with our friends and that interfacing with the board which had been all
reconfigured for other production stuff we're doing
then I went back and and
Connected and the software itself wasn't connected with the station. I had to retry connecting
Multiple times and I was in communication. I was talking to them, but
But you were talking. I thought they weren't answering the phone. That's
I had been I had been
Using SMS which which was me no no hold on saying how good me explain how SMS is faster than voice
I'm saying that no it is a it takes less effort to be picking up a handset being on
I don't know. I'm not gonna defend it. I why are you putting me in this position? I don't know I'm old school
I just think picking up a phone and calling somebody when there's a crisis is quicker than typing in there and you fingers and sending
our engineers are very busy and
They actually need to be attentive to the board at the at the broadcast studios
They can't be on the phone, so it's better to maybe text
They can look at their phone see that I said something
Checking something and they get to it when they want not sit on the we're supposed to be we're supposed to be on that board
Out here, and we're not on any okay
We don't want to spend the whole show talking about how we got the show on the air or how we almost didn't
but
Thank you Kyle for all your hard work, and he cleared it up. I don't know how much hard work Kyle does no
They don't he is basically putting together all that. I mean if you could see the room
We're in now wires everywhere
It's a it's a bloody mess, but it's brilliant because that is what creativity is all about you know if you're an artist if you're
a musician if you're a
Filmmaker or you're ever your office doesn't have to look neat as long as you're being creative and putting things together
And I gotta say you have been putting some really neat stuff together
yeah, and if you you know when you're growing up any if you're a kid out there and
You're taking apart things or playing with the VCR
You you might turn into a very interesting adult. That's all I gotta say
I mean it's it's been pretty cool to draw on all of the the funny AV things and
Curiosities and actually try to make stuff
And I know a lot of other presenters and workshops and so many people right now are doing that for hope which were
Terribly busy with and you know I was I'm gonna continue what I started saying because I know people are hanging on this
We do have a special
Promotion to support the radio station we have donated ten conference tickets to the hope 2020 conference
Which starts on Saturday and goes all the way until August 2nd nine full days, and when I say full
I mean full they start at 9 in the morning and the talks run until midnight every day except for the last day
The last day we have closing ceremonies in the evening
But and and and that's not all we're having either
We have I think over 60 workshops, and we have performances all kinds of musicians and and and all sorts of other surprises as well
So it's action-packed now. We are offering
tickets tonight half price half price if you support WBA I by calling
5 1 6 oh
My god
Forgot the number, and I don't have it written down in front of me. Oh, yeah, you're right
Are the Skype people connected this time 1 6?
Hold on Rob go ahead
That would be 5 1 6 6 2 0 3 6 0 2 and what's the SMS the only words Rob is gonna say tonight?
No, no, I think the phone number. You should tell us the SMS. We were just talking about SMS, so what was that again?
It's 4 1 4 4 4 text the text the letters WBA I'd shortcode 4 1 4 4 4
And that phone number again Rob
The phone number is 5 1 6 6 2 0 3 6 0 2 I knew the 3 6 0 2 part
It's a 6 2 0 for some reason I have difficulty with 5 1 6 6 2 0 3 6 0 2 so call that
For a pledge of $100 you will get a $200 hope ticket
But you have to pay by credit card
And you have to pay tonight because we're gonna get the the email addresses of and you have to give an email address
We're gonna get those addresses and process them tomorrow, and you will get your ticket tomorrow, so if it's if it's after
Today if it's tomorrow. It's not Wednesday. It's too late for this. We only have ten of these
I
Assume they'll go fast if they if they don't go then
We won't have them available on because the time is is too short for us to actually process them so again
5 1 6
5 1 6 oh, that's Alex Alex's is climbing into the phone closet
Is that what's going on now 5 1 6 6 2 0 3 6 0 2 no he's being attacked by a grizzly is that what's happening
Yes in the cabin in Pennsylvania
Asked for the hope 2020 conference ticket hope 2020 conference ticket. Yes, you can get more than one
You can't get more than ten though because that's all we have
5 1 6 6 2 0 3 6 0 2 or go to give to WBA I
Dot org and you should see it there as under premiums somewhere
But again only tonight only during this show and it's to support WBA I which is a terrific clearinghouse of information
Non-commercial in the middle of the FM dial in New York City on the air since 1960
Broadcasting well no longer on the top of the Empire State Building, but on top of another building
That's close by that almost is as tall and just the things that have gone out over these airwaves are
historic in so many ways
it's no matter what what your
philosophical political point of view is having a place like WBA I is
One of the healthiest things that there is so please support this place 5 1 6 6 2 0 3 6 0 2 we're offering the
hope 2020 conference tickets for a discounted price of $100 and
It's it's really going to be something yes, it's a virtual conference
But we are going to have content from all over the world. We're gonna see the the hacker community
Come together like it's never come together before
I was very pessimistic about this at the beginning because it just seemed like everything was doom and gloom
but this this community really can pull it together and
And come up with ideas and new ways of doing things and I gotta say this is the pre hope show
We always have a pre hope show before a hope conference every two years. Yeah, I have that same tingling sensation
which is either a heart attack or
anticipation or both and
It's so much going on so much activity
I stepped away from from email for a little bit, but literally every five seconds
I have some other email to answer or something else to arrange. It's it's crazy it
It drains you but it's amazing too I just love being in the thick of things like this
So that spirit is here
in fact, we we got more talk submissions and in any other conference before and
Over the past week. We've been getting a video
Submissions for people who have pre-recorded their their talks
But all talks are going to have a live Q&A session that only attendees
Can participate in and that's that's the advantage of being an attendee and the same thing for workshops
They're for attendees as well and and the the hallway track where you're able to congregate and talk to other attendees
so we've never done this before very few people have they're going to be mistakes missteps and
Some awesomeness, so I'm really looking forward to it. Let me say hi to Alex Alex. How you doing?
I'm well with I'm making a bunch of noise earlier. You were making a horrendous amount of noise. Yes
Well, that was all on purpose. So just want to make sure it came through
No, I'm I'm doing pretty well
I'm still out here in Pennsylvania as you guys can see nobody on the radio can see I'm out here
You know about a hundred feet away from a body of water things could be worse
But going back to forgetting how I am because I'm I'm the same as I as I have been for a while
Yes, I
Think the fact that this conference is happening is
absolutely insane
And in fact, I I recall
An evening last year. I guess it was it was probably it was probably last spring
Maybe early summer you and Kyle were in the city
You had just gotten some really bad news from Hotel, Pennsylvania
That they were jacking up their rates and didn't seem like it was going to be economically feasible in order to hold the whole conference
at Hotel, Pennsylvania
you were very
Upset about this Kyle was upset about this. I was upset about this. We were in the middle of
dealing with the strand bookstores landmarking situation as well and
I would think that was the night that Naomi Wolfe was speaking at the strand
You met me outside the strand bookstore and there was this omen in the window. Oh, yes
Oh the strand store and perhaps you can pick up the the narrative flow
Well, I don't I don't know. I don't know the exact the exact wording
I think you probably have a better sense of what it was
But yeah, it kind of you know, I was I was I was fit to be tied at that point
We had gone to the hotel to arrange
The next conference and we're told that the price had had tripled and it was completely impossible for us to do this with without
Jacking up the price tremendously for our attendees and that would simply shut out so many people that we want the conference to exist for
So we didn't know where we could possibly go. We were thinking about all sorts of
Ideas, but none were coming immediately. But yeah standing outside the strand. What was it? We saw exactly was a book in the window, right?
You looked into the the the storefront window on 12th and Broadway over there and you said oh my god
Look at this. This is a terrible omen. There was a book the title of which I think was hope is lost
Right in the in the window of the bookstore I
At that point it was very difficult to talk you off the ledge we went and we saw Naomi Walsh
No, I think I ran out. I ran into traffic in Broadway at that point and you had to talk me back
Yeah, you wouldn't you would have been in a better mood if you got hit. I think I think
Yeah, it was an interesting evening
And then yeah, it was a real fiasco to find another venue and everybody worked really hard in this
And and no one worked harder than you and Kyle. I'm trying to find a new venue. We got a new venue with st
John's
Everything was looking great. And then the whole world literally got turned upside down and and fractured by the coronavirus
Yeah, and you say you say me and Kyle
Let's not forget Greg newbie who actually did so much work in and and tracking down st
John's and doing so much else for this conference as well. But yeah, it's we found a terrific venue st
John's University amazing place lots of space bigger
more possibilities
And we were really looking forward to it was a challenge
But then we we had this other challenge come on top of things
So yeah
It's been it's been a whirlwind of activity from from from last year till now and the thing of that is that so much had
already been
Evolving and emerging and people working really hard to set up for the venue change which itself was with
not not a insignificant amount of uncertainty so to not do something it seems like
Really unfair to people who had volunteered or who had committed to doing some kind of activity or presenting?
so we wanted to
Do what we could to provide a at least equivalent experience
But remotely and virtually as I said lots of other things are well, we we have so much
Talent we we have Jolie from Internet Society
who
Works tirelessly to help us get the the conference out to the world
It's just I am blown away by the talent
Of course, that's not even that's not even starting to look at all the speakers that we have my god
You can go to hope net and and just look at the schedule so far
We have a really neat system now where you can click on a talk and get all the information about the people
That are presenting the talk, you know, it's really cool about our system
If you go to hope net you can I know this is just the the geek in me
Going nuts over this you can click on the time zone and change it
so you can see what time every talk begins in say Japan or in in Europe or and in California and
It's you don't have to do any kind of mathematical equations, it's right there in front of you
So when we say we begin at 9 in the morning in Los Angeles, that's 6 in the morning as you well know
But you can you can see that directly on our site by changing the times
Oh, but there's so many more cool things than just that. That's just an indication of how many different systems are integrated and
Wow, we're gonna have Greg on in just a couple of minutes to share some of that as well
But first before we do that, I want to go to somebody else who is has coordinated something really really cool
Do you know we're having a a film festival at at the at the conference?
that we've never done before and
Here to tell us all about that
As soon as I can find my connection here is
lexicon
This is lexicon self-quarantined in Upper Manhattan and thinking about hope
2020 which I'm very excited is
Starting this coming weekend. I've been thinking about hackers on planet Earth conferences that we've done in the past and how this year is a
Virtual conference. I was thinking about the last hope not the previous hope but the one we called the last hope
I helped launch the open AMD project and we were launching radio Statler and I was on off the hook on this show talking about
Those projects and Emmanuel asked me a question about why so many hackers are into
Photography and cameras and images and I drew a total blank
I don't know I didn't know and there was in fact dead air, which you'd never want in radio, but it's true so many hackers
Invest in nice cameras and and spend time improving their skills in this area
And I was thinking okay that we don't really get a great opportunity to show those skills off very often not not to the community
and
here we are with the
hackers on planet Earth conference having to be virtual because of the whole situation and
I'm in all these terrible zoom meetings where it's just like the
Q&A is the only thing you can really do in it. It's all this top-down kind of content
Well, what if we send some content up because hope supposed to be interactive and I know the the hope organizers are
Doing a lot with making this one as interactive as possible with the workshops and everything and being able to really communicate with the speakers
But I wanted to add something extra and and so I was thinking about this thing called
24-hour play festival or a 48-hour film festival what these things are is
Normally you would you'd with a 48-hour film festival. You have a bunch of people show up. They split up into teams and
there's a challenge you have to make a film that includes this this and this and
so then you have 48 hours to
Create your film you find your actors and you you shoot it and you edit it and and then it gets
Screened and and you win awards and and there's a prize and it's fun
and you you know, if you're a filmmaker you get to improve your skills and
If you're a good filmmaker in the first place you get to show off your skills and people have gotten hired from from showing off
Really cool stuff in these festivals. So I was thinking about that and I was also thinking about these conversations I've had with eyeball
About how we're living in the cyberpunk
Literature of the 80s and 90s like the things that were predicted
By all these authors are the things that are all around us right now
We're living in the cyberpunk right now. And so
All these things coming together in my head
what's come out of it is the cyberpunk now film festival and
So if you go to cyberpunk hope net you can read quite a bit about it on
July 25th on the first day of hope at noon Eastern Time
We will drop these required challenge elements and you will have five days
To make a cyberpunk short film. There's six categories
There are
Interesting rules definitely read the rules. I wanted to make it something that would be
Complicated enough for hackers to have fun with this is a cool competition
You can do it solo if you don't want to be on a team definitely check out the found footage category
Which is more to more of an editing challenge
For that you'll be digging through archive org looking for public domain footage
Jason Scott from the Internet Archive is going to be one of our judges for that if you have a hope ticket
It's free to submit a project for judging if you don't you can still participate
Also, if you got a team of one or two filmmakers in any category not counting your actors
So one or two filmmakers
And you don't have a hope ticket
You can you can enter the student rate if you only have two filmmakers
Which is more than half off and I know a lot of people are short on cash right now
And we want to make this as accessible as possible
2600 has put up a major credit in the 2600 store toward the grand prize and we got some other prizes on top of that
But don't do it for the prizes do it for the glory
This is the cyberpunk meme demolition derby who will be the most cyberpunk?
So pre-register at cyberpunk. Hope net and we'll see you on the 25th
Send us your movies
Thank you very much lexicon for that and for organizing this terrific film festival again
If you go to hope net and click on the cyberpunk button, you'll you'll get the same information as well
And boy that I love just going to that site and looking at it
But the best thing about that site actually is the biggest button. This is is hackers helping to fight covert 19
Because that's really what's the most important thing right now is to to get through this crisis together, and I think people are really
Joining hands to do that. That was like the first instinct
I know from a lot of our organizers and just as we had been really well along in planning we were
Hit with this as a as a species and I think every everybody who could
Was doing as much as they could some some with some, you know, very results varied
But everybody really
had their heart in it and we tried to collect the best of that and we immediately linked it on the hope site and
and and a lot of different action was taken in different locales and wherever at least
Members of the hope community were and I know we you and I did as much as we could here
as well, so it is
crucial and and I think a lot of
The spirit of the talks took that tenor I know there are several
Greg and other people who've had a little bit of an advanced knowledge of the speaking
Tracks will know more than I but I know that's the thrust of a lot of the speak
Speakers will be presenting and and it was
Very much in the forefront of our minds. Like how can we continue?
and
Find people to cover for individuals who are at risk or are contributing to their
Community and really can't volunteer. We were really trying to be as flexible as possible. It was a tall ask
I mean in the middle of a pandemic
Hey, can you continue to help us and we want to put on this show, but it's gonna be virtual
But we promise it won't suck. You know that that's a that's a tall order, but I know
What we ended up with is a bit of both worlds and a lot of expertise and skill and exciting
Possibilities to make sure that it doesn't yeah, and it's amazing
You might have a talk by a 16 year old hacker from Texas followed by a talk by somebody from the World Health Organization
We have that much diversity and and they're coming from all four corners of the earth or more corners
I don't think we've got anything bad Antarctica. I'm disappointed in that but
lots and lots of
Speakers lots and lots of diversity lots of information that is just being shared
Once again, I just want to give out the phone number five one six six two zero three six zero two
If you are interested in those limited half price hope tickets
They they start that the conference starts on Saturday and runs until the following Sunday meaning nine days
It's 24 seven. It's 24 seven. Yeah day and then for nine, I guess and and basically basically what you were talking about
basically, what you will get is if you give us a credit card and
your credit card and
An email address you will get a special code that allows you access
To all the features of the conference you can you can see the conference at channel 2600 at on YouTube
So just go to that channel 2600 on YouTube. You can see our countdown clock right now
I'm just I'm looking at this countdown clock. We have to have a conversation about this. I think it's wrong
I think it has an hour. I think it's off by two hours has a starting at 7 in the morning
Okay, I don't think that's right. It was originally nine
I know the first one's 10, but we'll sort that we'll get it figure that out when it's around 48 hours
So we're gonna get everything lined. Well, that's how I know because it says 57 now and 48 is 2. Okay, whatever
Well, the big numbers we have trouble with sometimes but we will get it, right?
Well, we're we're one thing at a time and the schedules the most exciting thing right now
And we're gonna sync up with that soon. So 5 1 6 6 2 0 3 6 0 2 or give to wbi.org
Get the hope 2020 conference ticket while they last you have to do it tonight
You have to pay with a credit card and you will get a an email tomorrow with a code that will allow you access
And that's only if they are still available
Joining us now via Skype
from from
Ontario is
Greg newbie
Well, hello, Ontario, Canada at your service
Welcome so Greg you've been working day and night for four months now organizing so much of this conference
It's
It's about to begin and we'll see how these efforts have paid off anything that you want to focus particular attention on
I
Think the main thing is that for for attendees for people that want to get the content
It's going to be so easy to just watch the live stream
It's going to be just like watching TV on your computer works on all the different devices
and when we have the link up on our wiki already so you can you can tune in now and watch this countdown clock that
we mentioned and
You know get a little more information. So just experiencing the content is going to be very very easy
The other thing to mention though, is that to participate
Interactively as we've been talking about. Well, that's where it gets interesting and maybe some multitasking or panic paying attention to different signals because we're going to have
Chat text chat where you can get in touch with speakers and with each other. You can even get tech support in the chat
And we're using some technology called matrix for chat, which is, you know, cool distributed technology
We're going to invite people to the Mozilla hubs virtual reality rooms for some of these hallway conversations that are so important. And then the last thing to mention here of
Maybe a few others. But the last thing to highlight is workshops. So people are going to be in this teleconferencing software called the big blue button and it's a little like zoom little like Skype, these types of things.
It also has some neat features for instruction, though. It's really designed for like classes and stuff like that. So in big blue button during workshops
People will be interacting with each other. They'll be able to, for example, take their, their
Camera on their computer and pointed out what they're doing and say to the workshop coordinator. Hey, you know, can you help me out here to another
Member of the workshop. So workshops are going to be truly informative and for those that are standing by workshop signups are going to open on Friday morning.
So there's about 60 workshops about 130 talks. I think you mentioned this already and all these different ways of interacting with each other. So it's going to be a mix of technologies, yet we think the fundamental part of, can you experience a talk. Can you participate in a workshop is actually going to be pretty easy and
I guess last thing I'll just highlight is we spun up a whole little support infrastructure for this. You can email the help desk.
You can ask in the chat. So these are things that we haven't done that in person conferences, because it wasn't really necessary, but we want to make sure that people have a smooth and experience as possible. So attendees with tickets absolutely should be getting in touch if you're running into any problems, having, you know, questions during the event or even leading up to it.
You know, and one thing that I would like to mention that Greg has also helped tremendously with is on the speaker side. You know, as somebody who's on the back end of this thing and and also a HOPE speaker, again, I want to reemphasize the fact that this conference is happening is nothing short of a miracle, because
Greg put together this this great video for everybody who had a talk that was accepted. And, you know, what you realize is when you go virtual, you either have to present this thing virtually live or you can pre-record it. And it's a giant pain in the butt to pre-record this stuff. It really, really is. Greg made this great video for all the speakers who really, you know, kept it extraordinarily simple for us simpletons. We're going to be speaking in a lot of different languages, but it's a great video and it's going to be a great way for people to get in touch with each other and get to know each other better, and it's going to be a great way for people to get in touch with each other and get to know each other better, and it's going to be a great way for people to get in touch with each other better, and it's going to be a great way for people to get in touch with each other better, and it's going to be a great way for people to get in
hope. And it's you know.... But, on the other hand, it still is a huge amount of work. It's a lot
more work than just putting together slides and going in to present them. So,
you know, Greg did a great job of putting all this together. I think the
speaker's committee all did a wonderful and fantastic job getting submissions,
vetting the submissions, and you're coming up with a hundred thirty amazing talks that
are going to happen in just a few short days. And then I really think it's those
other 130 plus people that have all come together to make this thing happen. All
of those speakers plus all of the keynotes. I mean this is really nothing
short of a miracle because let me tell you, being on the back and the front of
this as a speaker, as one of three in this presentation, I'm not even doing a
solo presentation like I usually do, it's a lot of work. So people are really
putting their shoulder into this to make it happen. This is going to be
extraordinarily special and I think now would be a good time to plug the
premium again if you wanted to do that, Emmanuel. Yes, fantastic idea Alex.
Basically for a pledge of $100 to WBAI, you will get a help ticket that is
selling for double that and that's only happening right now during
this show and only while they last. We only have about 10 of them. Call 516-620-360
to ask for the HOPE 2020 conference ticket. You can get more than one if more
than one is available but you have to pay with a credit card and your payment
has to clear tonight so that we can send you your special code tomorrow so that
you can go to the conference on Saturday. Now Alex, you mentioned keynotes and
we have nine keynotes. How many conferences have you ever been to that
have had nine keynotes? We have one for every single day. You guys want to
focus on any of them in particular? I would love to mention something and
chiming in here to the slightest provocation and it sort of bounces off something that
you mentioned earlier about the you know the biggest button on the cyberpunk film
festival site was hackers helping fight coronavirus, right? On our site, on the
HOPE site. On our site, that's right. Yes, on the HOPE site and so one of our
keynotes really came directly out of that sentiment. In the middle of March
using the DNS domain name system intelligence platform that I developed
with my law firm over the last couple of years, we detected a live state-sponsored
attack targeting the World Health Organization that was on the 13th of
March. Since that detection, we had forged a great friendship with the World
Health Organization's Chief Information Security Officer, Flavio Agio and had
and you know we became essentially friends and colleagues together and had
also you know helped them by funneling over some some additional intelligence
and have been monitoring some some things with respect to the World Health
Organization as well and I'm really pleased to say that I mean Flavio is an
extraordinary Chief Information Security Officer, is one of the hardest jobs in
the world right now and he is going to be one of our work keynote speakers. So
we are going to have the Chief Information Security Officer of the
World Health Organization speaking at HOPE in the midst of the worst global
health crisis we have ever had probably since the bubonic plague or or since the
the Spanish flu at least a hundred years ago and at a time when the United States
has taken affirmative steps to actually withdraw from the World Health
Organization. So this is going to be nothing short of amazing and incredibly
interesting. I think everybody should be glued to their screens to hear what
Flavio Agio has to say. I'd really like to highlight one of the other of the
nine keynote speakers. This is Yeshe Mabet Milner. Ms. Milner is an
incredible inspiration to me. As some people might know in my professional
career I'm a big data person. I've been dealing with with big data and so forth
for my whole career. What this keynote has done is basically the merger
of big data, data analytics, and social empowerment and she's been particularly
active in an organization called Data for Black Lives. This is clearly a
socially conscious, socially focused organization. She's one of the
inaugural class of this Roddenberry Foundation Fellows for work she did with
Black Lives Matter and also one of our favorites from a few years ago, Occupy
Wall Street. So I'm just really inspired at how someone can take technologies
that we all love, we all love the technology, but apply it so directly
towards the social good. So I think this is going to be one of the really
inspirational keynotes and highlights of the conference for me. And we have
nine keynotes all together. We don't have time to talk about them all, but you
certainly can take time and go to Hope.net, click on keynotes, and you'll
see a bio on every single one of them. And if you click on talks or schedule or
speakers you'll get so much more information as well. Or you can click on
workshops and learn all about those. So much, so much is going on and what's
really cool is that these people are coming to the conference as well. You
might run into them in the chat area where you can actually talk to them
directly. So it's as close to coming to a real conference as I think we
can get. And in many ways I think it's more like a real conference than we've
ever been able to achieve because I just see so many teams working together that
we never actually had before. People from all over the world because we have this
feeling of the need to support each other to get through this and to feel
that sense of community that really does matter.
Absolutely and that's why I think some of the technologies are so important and
that we do them as comprehensively as possible. Make it really accessible so
that people who might ordinarily not be willing to ask a question of someone or
maybe intimidated a little bit by public speaking, perhaps since they're a little
bit removed because of the technology and we've made it accessible, perhaps
there will be better ways or more opportunities for people to just ask
questions and not feel that kind of apprehension about speaking publicly as
you would in a hallway or standing up in front of a room full of people in our
pen top track or in a big field.
Yeah, one thing that I've been saying since we went to a virtual conference is
this weirdly opens it up to so many people that I hope would not have been
open to before. People who wouldn't have been able to travel to New York to take
part in this, to either see it or to speak at it. We have speakers from
countries all over the world now. We have audience members coming from all over
the world and we have people that are basically going to get together and
share in this hope experience in a way that's never been done before. And I
find that really exciting. I'm fascinated by the possibilities. I absolutely
agree. Having the opportunity to, you know, I was excited at first because we
live in Queens. I was like, Oh, hope is going to be really close to home. And
now it's really close to home. But having the opportunity to share with so
many people from the comfort of our own home and still be able to get the kind
of mind expanding, world growing experiences that you get at hope from
the comfort of our own living room, I think it's going to be a really amazing
opportunity that's open to so many more people than we could ever fit in any
physical space.
You know, it's interesting. Yes, you say that because these these pre hope shows
that we do. Usually, Kyle and I are out renting a truck and driving around the
city. While you guys are doing radio, completely lost in all the preparation.
Yeah, I feel like our carbon footprint is probably just amalgamated inside
colocation facilities. I don't think we're driving as much to create. No,
it's it's great. And logistically, it's all virtual tank of fuel last a month or
more. But I still feel like you know, we're supposed to be doing something
outside that we have to get out there and start moving AV equipment around. And
it's kind of a relief that we don't have to do that. But we are doing so much
more on this end of it. And I just wonder how we ever were able to pull off
in the past. But it's it's just something that keeps building something
that is pretty amazing. So lots and lots of prep, lots of activity. Now, Greg,
I'm going to hand it back over to you just to just give a quick outline to
people who might be just tuning in, or who think this is too complex, or so
many different types of technology. Can you just give a very quick guide to the
different things that are happening in different parts of the conference? And
how accessible all that is, particularly to people who might not be as technical
as they think we are?
Sure. I mentioned a little bit of this before. And the key thing I want to
mention, following up on what we're just talking about, is this is enabled by
volunteers. We have a tremendous crew of volunteers, more volunteers, I think, than
we've had in past events. And that's facilitated because, you know, you can sit
in front of your computer at home or in the office. The main technology that
we're going to be using is a live stream. So people will be able to watch this
from wherever they are very easily without a lot of extra technology. So if
you're able to stream Netflix, you know, to your computer, to your TV, you'll be
able to watch the live stream. We're also going to use some teleconferencing
software, Big Blue Button, for people to interact in workshops. And that is very
similar to Skype and to Zoom and the other technologies that home office
workers are so familiar with. And then we also have chat, this matrix chat. And for
people that have been chatting over the years, we have a lot of people that have
used IRC, and people that are also using SMS on their phones and group chat. Again,
very similar. It's a website, a web page that you can use, or if you want, you can
use a client. So there's a bunch of stuff behind the scenes that make all this
stuff work. But those are sort of the core technologies that we've deployed for
the attendees and the participants.
Yeah, I imagine that basically what you need to attend, like required supplies
would be basically a way to watch, like a way to stream from either the live stream
itself or our other syndicated sites like our Channel 2600 page on YouTube
and so on and so forth. You also might want to have a computer so you can use
the Element desktop client or access a web browser so you can have those
interactions and participate as an attendee that way, as well as the
workshop platform that you just described will require some kind of
either laptop or desktop machine. But they're pretty varied as far as
available platforms and so on and so forth. And maybe some snacks? I don't know.
Yeah, bring snacks because it's a long conference. We tried really hard to make
sure that the technologies will work for people that are on the phone or on a
tablet. You know, maybe they just want to listen. And in fact, for people that might
have visual impairments or different languages, we're even going to do a live
automated transcript of the talk so you can get out of band. So we're
doing our best to make it accessible. It's not it's not going to be perfect. I
think having a computer is probably a good idea. But if you don't have a
computer, you just have the ability to watch YouTube on your TV. You know, you
have one of these smart TVs. Well, that can pick up the stream as well and you
can watch. And if you're having difficulty with the matrix chat, well,
send an email and people that have a ticket can send an email and that email
will get right to us. And that could be a question that goes to one of our
keynotes or, you know, one of the other talks. And again, if people bought a
ticket and they're having a little difficulty, email the helpdesk and we'll
try to help you out. We have a lot of people behind the scenes that are, you
know, pretty familiar with helping people through technologies and we'd love to
make sure that everyone has a good experience. Absolutely. It all begins at
9 in the morning on Saturday. And of course, we don't expect people will be
able to make it to every single talk. And if there's a talk that you want to
see, we are planning a video on demand service. Is that correct, Greg? Yeah, it's
a replay and we're not sure if it'll be within moments or it might take an hour
or so, but more or less right after a talk completes, that talk will be
available. This will be in at least two places. We think one place it'll be right
away, which is in the live stream. This is Internet Society, which we're so grateful
to for running the live stream and a lot of the production behind the scenes of
these talks. So the talks will be available on the same site as the live
stream within probably just a few minutes. And then we're also going to
push that out to the YouTube channel that is the 2600 channel for Hope. And
those are very easy to find. Just do a YouTube search for 2600 Hope and you'll
find all that. And so the idea is that you can just replay on demand. And since
it's out there, it'll just be there permanently. You can share with your
friends and watch it time and time again. And these will be a lot of these
I think are going to be really notable presentations that you will want to
watch more than once after you see it. All right, well we are practically at the
end of this pre-Hope show. Again, pledge support to the radio station at
516-620-3602 or give to WBAI.org. And as for the Hope 2020 conference ticket,
for $100 pledge, which is half the price that the tickets are going for, this is
only going to work tonight. After that, these tickets will not be available
unless they already are not available. And you need to give us an email address.
You need to pay by credit card so that your payment is complete. And you will
get an email tomorrow with your special code that will allow you to attend the
conference starting Saturday at 9 a.m. in the morning. Closing comments, anyone?
All at once, people, go ahead.
Yes, it's going to be amazing. I am really excited. A bunch of us are
going to be doing things like there will be an InfoDesk sort of thing set
up during the conference. There will be facilitators, MCs, a bunch of us
are helping with that. Thank you, Greg, for wrangling all that as well on top of
the other 47 billion things you do. And I just can't wait for this to get started.
I think it's going to be great because it's going to be so much of what Hope
has been historically throughout the years. Plus, you know, Hope 2020 is just
more. It's more Hope. And I think bringing more Hope to the world is a
great thing that we can all enjoy and all look forward to.
I realize I don't think we have mentioned the performances yet. So Hope
has a tradition of having great intellectual content, but also a lot of
fun. And starting around midnight every night of the conference, we have a whole
different suite of performances. We have chip tunes. We have some fantastic
original compositions, a lot of different entertainment. So there's just
like at a real Hope conference, there's every reason to stay up late and enjoy
the entertainment.
Absolutely. And we're going to have to leave it at that. In fact, this is one of
our performers right now, or two of our performers, Cameron Glass and Jonathan
Massey. And this piece, if you go to Channel 2600 on YouTube, you can hear it
in its entirety because undoubtedly it'll be cut off on the radio. But just
such incredible. It got cut off on our computer. How about that? Oh, it's part
of it. I'm sorry. Their music plus Worlds of If is also featured on Channel
2600. And we're going to have all kinds of other music throughout the
conference. Just stay tuned. And as Greg said, those performances, they will be
incredible as well. You can write to us, othat2600.com. You can visit Hope.net
and see all the preparations and all the activity over the next week or two. And
we'll be back in two weeks. You can see how we fared through all this. But please,
we hope to see you at the conference. Yeah, enjoy. Hope.net and become a BAI
buddy and support community radio. 516-620-3602. Good night.
D&O were brought into this environment. A spacecraft brought us in. Remember, it's a physical world.
Spacecraft brought us in and made deposits, information deposits in our vehicles when they were infants.
They could make these little metal deposits in human plants. We'll call those deposits, for the sake of understanding, we'll call them souls.
And those little deposits are really just like a little...
There we go.
Hello, everybody. You're listening to WBAI 99.5 FM. My name is Eli Smith from the Jalopi Theater.
And I'll be hosting Folk Radio coming up on Thursday from 10 until midnight.
We'll be bringing you some down-home grassroots music, including blues, folk songs, traditional jazz, ballad singing, and lots more.
That's music from right here in New York City, heading down to Appalachia and the deep south, way out west and all across the country,
as well as music from all around the world.
Please tune your radios to WBAI or WBAI.org on Thursday from 10 to midnight and catch Folk Radio. Hope to see you there.