Even if it was mostly a luxury-for-the-insiders—which I’m not convinced it’d necessarily have to be: the event has lots of big-name participants, and with a bit of advertising, you might get a big crowd of watchers who weren’t usually into the Singularity—that doesn’t make it worthless or something that doesn’t matter. People are emotional creatures, and tend to invest more strongly into things or communities they have an emotional attachment to. Creating a feeling of community around the people following the webcast will help build those emotional bonds.
It’s true that some of the audience members might not like being filmed, though. But that has an easy answer: film only the speeches, not the question & answer sessions.
The resources of the organisers are limited, true, and I agree that this isn’t anywhere near the number one priority. It’s up to them to determine whether or not they have the resources for it—but I do want them to be aware of the potential upsides of a webcast they might not have considered.
Even if it was mostly a luxury-for-the-insiders—which I’m not convinced it’d necessarily have to be: the event has lots of big-name participants, and with a bit of advertising, you might get a big crowd of watchers who weren’t usually into the Singularity—that doesn’t make it worthless or something that doesn’t matter. People are emotional creatures, and tend to invest more strongly into things or communities they have an emotional attachment to. Creating a feeling of community around the people following the webcast will help build those emotional bonds.
It’s true that some of the audience members might not like being filmed, though. But that has an easy answer: film only the speeches, not the question & answer sessions.
The resources of the organisers are limited, true, and I agree that this isn’t anywhere near the number one priority. It’s up to them to determine whether or not they have the resources for it—but I do want them to be aware of the potential upsides of a webcast they might not have considered.