 Okay, we are broadcasting to chat. It's not like intro or anything. Who's running this shit? Well, I know. What? What? I need to take over. Okay, here we go. No, I've got the opener. Okay. Ready? That's more like it. Okay, so now we are here to talk about OER by domains, the debrief by the Reclaim Hosting team. In that intro, we even had photos from, I think, our first conference, right? Back in 2017. That was when you were joining, right? Yeah, that was 2018, and it was in Bristol, England. Like, is it like that's so crazy to think it was in person. Oh, we are. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. So both. Yeah, we had the work soon. Yeah. There was the Oklahoma City, where the whole womb area, right? Grant Potter, and then there was 2018, which was in Bristol. That was the famous movie theater one. Yeah. Yes. It's 2019, and now domains 21. Pretty crazy. Combining forces for good. So, yes, to kind of put the timeline in perspective with when we're recording. The conference was end of last week. So we kind of had the weekend to sleep on it and fill the high. I think that was the most exciting thing. And it was a lot of, I remember just vlogging, blogging a ton more than anyone else. I've been the only one blog more than anyone else. Like, it's just been Jim blogging. Let me start with you, let me start with you, Isabel putting you on the spot. This was your first like big event. I mean, I was brought on in December, so everything that I've done hasn't been in person, like I've been communicating 100% virtually basically with everybody, I feel like, apart from Meredith, because we're both in the Reclaim HQ in Fredericksburg. But I think that I came away just feeling like really encouraged by the community because there was just an overwhelming feeling of just like genuine open realness and vulnerability about it, like nobody was trying to hide that, you know, they were in a time zone where it was after midnight and they were on their fifth cup of coffee and just, you know, that kind of just vulnerability openness there really stuck with me. I think it was just really awesome, especially I think my favorite part was being the kind of backstage hand guiding presenters through the tech, but then like also being that last that last post of comfort, like right before you go live, I'm the one who's like, ready, three, two, one, hyping them up and it was just like, that was my favorite part. I just had a great time. Everybody was just so high energy and I just wish I could do it again. Yeah. No, you and Meredith were both instrumental and kind of helping facilitate some of those sessions, which is definitely new for this type of event, you know, in the past with in-person conferences. When they're fast with in-person conferences, we haven't started clapping at the window. Unbelievable. I always get the short end of this thing. Who put me up here? Don't put baby in the corner. I was thinking Mike was asking for more to think. But no, being able to do, you know, the staff role of facilitating or the session sort of behind the scenes, you know, and I don't think many participants sort of knew that there were two admins, you know, you have this frontward facing session host, which was the volunteer, you know, the committee members for the OER by domains conference, but then we also had a member of staff that was sitting behind the scenes doing the layout, the intro and outros and, you know, making sure that everything was seamless from start to finish. And so that's really cool that you all were able to do that. Yeah, I thought that was really well done because it made it easy for the participants and even just the chairs themselves to really like be involved and like enjoy the conference. There wasn't like a barrier of where you need to know the platform first. Like that was kind of just like the host job to do. And it's just something fun. We were able to experience and we were like in right now, like recording this. So I just thought that was really, really well done. And I like that, you know, the staff role didn't have the pressure of being, you know, in the frontward facing view, you know, you could kind of do the back end management and focus solely on that. And you didn't have to worry about introducing a speaker or, you know, even just being visible, you know, it just kind of takes the pressure off in that way. And then the person that is visible, their one role is to be visible. And so I think just defining the roles that way, yeah, just kept things super seamless and, you know, you're muted. Interesting, too, because a couple of, sorry about that, a couple of people said how much they loved StreamYard, like Sheila McNeil in a recent post today about it mentioned like how great it was to have people producing it while they were kind of cheering. And they also just loved how seamless StreamYard is. And I know I got a shout out directly, Marin Diepwell, who runs Saalt and who was partnering with us was really appreciative of the work Meredith and Isabel, you two both did and communicated that directly. Like, so there was a real sense, I think that feeling you were talking about, Isabel, that like everyone was excited, but we were also partly excited because it was going well, like it was fun, like the technology was working and people were like doing what they came to do. Connect. And when we had Domain's 19, I made a big push to try and record and publish every single session that we did, and it was a ton of work. That's where like I feel like this setup and being virtual was actually a good thing because we almost like put it into like automated mode. It wasn't automated necessarily, but so much was taken care of for us to where it was like at the end of the conference, it's like, yeah, and everything's live now and everything is already put on the YouTube channel and it's good to go where it's like at the Domain's 19 conference, there was hardware that we had to purchase, there were I tried to get it to the point where people could just hit the start and stop button before in their main sessions. But then, you know, Jim, you blogged a little bit about, you know, just like that feeling of like at the end of the conference, now I've got to upload every single video file. I was trying to do it while I was at the conference on hotel internet and that wasn't working out. I saved a lot till the end and then you're editing videos to cut out the ones that didn't work properly or people, you know, and so it was a ton of work trying to do that back then, whereas now it feels like seamless. Let's just get in a string yard, make a video, goes online, you're done. And I think there's also like a really important window during and after the conference where people are paying attention to the content. They want to be able to link it out. They want to go back and catch something that they missed. And that window, as much as people wish or want to think that it's longer, you know, where in the weeks leading after they're going to go back and watch the content that never happens, it's like you have to be in that mindset. You have to be have the time dedicated to the conference to watch the content. And so the fact that these sessions were essentially produced live, you know, you have the folks putting the intros and outros. And then once it was done streaming, it was automatically archived. You know, you had then folks in different time zones that could come in and catch the next shift of watching automatically. If we had said, you know, these aren't going to be available until next week, which was essentially our timeline with Domain is 19. You know, I don't think we would have had the same level of engagement or visibility for some of those sessions. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's right. And I said this to you, Lauren earlier today. One of the things that was cool is because we went into this kind of like, hope it works, big fit. Like, and my whole thing to Lauren earlier when the conference was like, no matter what happens, we're going to have a beautiful archive and we're going to have a beautiful website. So even if the conference is horrible, because you never know, but the OER community proved itself once again to just be awesome. And the domains proved themselves to be awesome. But like, I do think that, you know, saying this earlier today, it's I, I liked being in the chats and then seeing after the first session, like people arrived and they were talking about their coffee and they were hanging out. And I just felt like it was great. And I think I didn't lose the high for the next, like still, I'm kind of writing it like it was just so cool to connect and have the prerecorded sessions because I stayed mainly in domains 21. So I got to go back and watch the other ones. And I just was trying to like talk with folks and hang out and connect. And there were some awesome moments over those two days where people just showed up to engage. And I think that really is a testament to the broader open community that I really I'm glad, Isabel, you've got to get exposed to some of that and see some of these folks. And, you know, because there's so many great people and to have a kind of the discord stuff you did, Lauren, was amazing because it really provided that platform where we could connect beyond the videos and the schedule. It was super well done. It was it felt good. Absolutely. And it's still it's still going on today. Like I checked like half an hour ago and people are still in like the resources channel and like in the like the social feed of all the post after the fact, too, like it's all still going on. So, you know, and obviously you can't recreate an in-person experience, right? There's no way to fully duplicate that. But I think one of the things that we thought about really early on with this conference was finding a way to engage with folks outside of the 20 minute session, right? Outside of the 60 or the minimum character tweet, right? You know, this the the conversations that happened in the hallways or during lunch, you know, were sometimes, if not always, you know, more valuable for me at least to connect with others than when I was listening to someone speak at the front of the room. And so, yeah, for me, I think having discord, you know, in the different channels, the hallway chats, the resources, the introductions, you know, in just all the different ways that you could kind of say, hey, I'm here, what's everybody else doing and feeling comfortable in that. Again, it goes back to what is about you were saying about, you know, that vulnerability, but also just feeling like you're connected to a larger group. And that was the vibe that I got from a few folks was that this was the first conference where people felt connected to other participants in a way that virtual conferences haven't been able to do in the past. It's true, too. And, you know, interrupt me at any point, but I have to blog a bit. I don't know if you've read my blog, so I have some things to talk about. But but the thing that was key to me and I think it's important for this for reclaim, but I'm sure for a whole bunch of other tech groups around the world, like professional conferences, as much as people want to say, oh, they're hard to get to, they're expensive, they're this and that, all true. But like it was that time you had to connect and make like a sense of who you are as your identity professionally with other folks, see what they're doing, bring it back home, do these different things. And I think that was getting lost a bit as everybody was doing everything in Zoom and everything was kind of rootnized and you couldn't really get outside of that. And I think the ideal of a conference, and I'm not sure we did it, but would to get people back in that zone with some of that energy so that they're seeing things outside of their bubble and they're making connections they wouldn't normally make. And like that dream of the conference, which is actually what matters can find its way in a little bit, right? And I it's true, you know, Jim, you kind of compared in some ways the excitement to Faculty Academy, which is a conference that we would have back the University of Mary Washington. And that was my first exposure to the faculty there that introduced me to the community that I would be supporting as an instructional technology specialist back in 2011. And so, you know, I had just come there to do an interview. And, you know, I'd finished the interview and then it was like, well, I'm going to tack this on and go to this conference that they're doing. And that was a way to like really meet the people and understand what the culture was at the university there, which got me way more excited than even just an interview would be. I was like, I want to work here. I want to work with these people. And so, you know, that's just another example again of where when you bring people together like that, it's an incredible opportunity to really understand what the what the community can be beyond just the virtual, beyond Twitter, beyond whatever the case may be. And I think this was, you know, even within the confines of needing to do it as a virtual event, this was the first time that it really didn't feel all that virtual to me. You know, it really felt in person in that same way. And it was because of the community, I think. And even just the way the presentations were set up to, like it was cool to see different types. Like I hosted a podcast episode recording of 25 years of ad text by Martin Weiler. And that was so cool to be in and get to see it. And that was outside of stream art and in Discord, but just the just that type of presentation itself was just kind of cool to be involved with and to see that you would normally see in another conference. Kind of having the different types of of sessions, right? So we had the recordings, the live versions. You had the workshops pre-conference and post-conference. And then there was this idea of open spaces, you know, where they happened in voice channels and Discord. And then we also have these seven minute flash talks or gasta sessions, I believe they were called as well. So I kind of liked this sort of this idea. There were all of these different mediums coming together. And in some ways, it reminds me of the show and tell portion of the domains conferences that we've done, where it's just sort of ad hoc everybody bringing the work that they're doing, whatever that looks like to the floor to chat about, you know, and it might look different session to session or booth to booth. And so being able to have that, I keep calling it like this creative chaos that you see between Discord and StreamYard and YouTube and all of the different ways. And so I think that for me was really exciting is being able to take all of these different platforms and really fancy tools on the back end and sort of push them together and mesh them in a way that it felt super streamlined on the front end. And it was a really simplified, but still really engaging conference for participants. You know, you didn't have to be super techie in order to join. And the thing that I always hated from conferences was working with hotels to do that. Like, because you work with all these fun ideas, you'd say, like, we're going to come in and we're going to do this. And then everything down to like meeting an outlet somewhere becomes this like committee decision and costs like they're like, well, for $150, we can get you an outlet on that wall. And you're just like, what, you know, I'm just trying to like broadcast on the radio and they're like, oh, you need internet too. We didn't even discuss that. And so it's like everything gets arbitrary traded through these like awful scenarios with these conference centers and hotels and things to where it just it takes all the life and passion out of that love, that sense of experimentation. And there was none of that here because it was all virtual because it was using tools that we were comfortable with. We could just say, hey, you know, we're going to do karaoke today or hey, we're going to broadcast this one on the radio. You could just do it without the having to find approval for stuff and have to talk to different organizations. Is this going to cost money? Do we have the bandwidth to do this? You know, we could just run with it, which I think was really a lot of fun. Not to mention the food. Yeah, well, there's that too. Yeah, you mean you didn't make your own set of conference chickens? Anybody who's ever planned a conference knows what the food or deal thing is because you've got the allergies and the variants, the different types of meals. And, you know, it's it's a lot. And it's it's arguably one of the more expensive parts of the conference. The food and the venue are usually the two biggest ones. I will say, though, Tim, to kind of counter what you were saying, you know, I think there was life and passion in Domain's 19 with our big absolutely and like we weren't able to hang anything on the walls. But we couldn't afford the internet, but it was very passionate. There are there are ways to work against the system, but you are working against the system that was to charge you through the nose. Yeah, exactly. That level of experimentation is just super hard when you don't know in the building and you don't get to call all the shots on things. So I have a question for everybody, actually. So I'll start because I won't I won't be a leader and be like, OK, everybody else. But like, what's the session that you walked away from? And there are many. So I'm not going to focus on the Domain's 21 because that's biased. But I'll tell you, Rajiv's closing keynote for me was a call to action. But also really like I think if you're coming into the open education community and you're trying to get a sense of like, where has it been? Where is it and where is it going? That was such a pointed and very specific look at the changing nature of this community of open education and the challenges. And really, it was just a passionate, thoughtful, really grounded kind of gut check of the community. I just thought it was amazing so much so that that little ringer you just heard was basically like, yes, like it was really for me an amazing moment of the conference and what a high to close on. So I just love that. But how about you? Yeah, I was actually hosting Virginia Rhodes session. And she did. She talked about the digital divide between classes in Uruguay when they all went online for the pandemic and stuff like that. She was presenting her preliminary research for her paper about it. And I was just fascinating. Like, I wouldn't have chosen it if it was an in-person conference. But I think like the schedule itself was just so flexible enough that like I just popped in and it was very surprising. But like really, really cool to see. So I popped in on a few different ones, too. But I think Joanna Franck was doing some really amazing work when she was comparing open practice and education and you know, you know, indigenous communities and how there's a lot of correlation there and how it's pulling that into even modern times with higher institutions of knowledge here. And a lot of the hierarchies are the same. So she was pulling connections from systems that have been in place for such a long time. But I think that, you know, when you add that digital layer to it, you get that new 2021 perspective on it because, you know, you can spin it a different way. Like there's different contexts there, I think. So I was really, really intrigued by everything that she had to say. And she was just a delight. She was great to meet in person, like face to face. That was awesome. She was great. Apart from... Yeah, I followed a lot of the domains tracks. And, you know, I mean, you could see a common theme, at least for me, in the work that CUNY had done and the work that they had built up that then spread even beyond their institution to the point where you had Zach Davis as a development team able to work within the confines of open source and what they could do there. You could see, you know, what Boone Gorgeous had done. And so, like, even the broader effects of the work that had been rooted at CUNY, which was really inspiring. But for me also, just like even the keynote from Laura, you know, like at the very beginning and the way she modeled this sort of randomized sly thing. And I love that because, like, people get so worried about, like, what if something breaks? What if something goes wrong? And she said, I'm just gonna put my slides on random because random is what I'm all about. And so, like, she just starts going and the slides come up and she starts talking about them and talking about things and she's just so passionate about the work she's doing. And it was such an interesting keynote for this moment in time to really tell people, like, this is okay. It's okay to have fun with the work you're doing. It's okay to have the element of surprise in there and that surprise can actually be fun and be okay at a time when I think people are kind of weathered by the pandemic and when it's all broad. It's just to say, like, if things go wrong, they'll just be different. They won't necessarily be a bad thing altogether, which I just thought was an awesome message. No, I'd have to agree with that. I didn't have a chance to sit down and watch a session start to finish just because I was sort of on the back end running around. But I did, I was able to focus on the keynotes and Laura gives a keynote, really did resonate me. I think resonate with me for that reason. Just as a speaker, presenter, I get so anxious and sort of bogged down with preparing and just to see that she kind of took that pressure off and really kind of flipped the keynote mindset on its head and then still was able to bring across the care and passion with just knowing the slides would show up on random and she could see a single picture and go, oh yeah, and talk about that, a single project for 15 minutes or something like that. It was just, that was really inspiring. And I would love to work towards just as, my own speaking abilities to be able to do something like that, so. And they were from like 20 years of work and like 250 slides randomized where she was coming in and you could see, it was amazing to watch just to see her light up with every slide that came her way. And then to make a game of it on the other side with the bingo cards, which was just like it was a joyful presentation. And obviously I kind of introduced it so I'm biased, but I was like, this is like nothing I've ever seen. And it's almost like you're just watching her be excited about her work. And it's like, it is what it pretends to be, right? There's no, and she was nervous because she's like, I don't like video. I don't like live presentations, right? I don't like any of this. So she made it work for her in a brilliant way. I agree. I think it'll be an interesting challenge. I was trying to think about like what things we could take away for in the future when we're back to whatever normal is, and the idea is like, you don't wanna go back to that conference chicken. You don't wanna go back to the bad parts of a conference. You wanna take the elements of the good ones. And I'm actually working with an organization right now that's thinking of their conference in December and they're actually gonna do a hybrid approach where they run both a virtual and a face-to-face at the same time, the exact same conference. And I think that'll be a huge challenge. And I think it's interesting to think what things we can take away from this event and this style of learning of professional development. What kind of ideas can we take and translate to the face-to-face in a way? Or will it just completely change for the foreseeable future where people will continue to do the virtual alongside the face-to-face in some fashion? Those ideas of discord, of stream yard, and how can we use those things even in a face-to-face event to kind of reap those same benefits. And I think there's certainly still a place for discord in an in-person event. I mean, I think that's, you know, because beforehand you would have all of these, like even just scheduling meals. Let's say you wanna go grab dinner with a group of folks or you don't have plans and, you know, where are folks gonna be? It's kind of this blast out to this community that's sort of watching this space. Whereas beforehand it was on Twitter you had people kind of planning things in DMs and conversations got lost. And I think, you know, we tried to combat some of that in domains 19 by setting aside time where folks could come up, you know, and put their name at a restaurant and, you know, try and plan that way. But even just having discord to say, you know, I'm in this session right now, it's awesome. You know, coffee just, you know, was released, everybody go grab, you know, just these blasts to it, you know, and now it's to folks where it takes it out of email, it takes it out of Twitter direct messages and it's just this centralized hub of content, even sharing resources afterwards. You know, I love that that channel blew up the way that it did where folks are now sharing their slides there. You know, it's become a place where people can go back and see conversations and then it's all archived too. It has a timestamp on it. So, you know, if there's anything that was said, you know, you don't have to take notes. It's just there. So we love that. I would say too, one of the things that I, if we're talking about future at what worked or what I'd want to see, Michael Branson Smith was kind of imagining this idea and it kind of goes to a point people made during the conference of, I wish I really liked the platform because they could switch between sessions, guilt-free, like so you could go in one and then jump to another video, pretty guilt-free. Well, Michael Branson Smith was gonna make the channel changer on the TV so that you could click which channel. So track OER1, track OER2, DOM21. And that would be a really cool, like, switcher. So you could say, oh, on this channel right now is Joanna Funk. On this channel right now is like, and so you could kind of go through it like you're surfing. I would love that. I think there, I believe that we had a vision that we couldn't completely do because of time and other restraints, but I think we could actually fill out some of it in another iteration. So I think we all need to like, do our victory laps, right? We did it again. Like, we should do that. But then, you know, I think we have more to do. I do think that, you know, because the site itself, like Michael and Tom, their work to put that together is just phenomenal. It was so, so cool. If I had one, if we had more time or the ability to add in an additional feature or something, I think that that concept, Jim, that you're talking about, what's happening live right now and really highlighting that would be great. However that looks, I think that's maybe the next really important thing because when you go to the site, you know, you have the full schedule and you can see the ones that have already happened or, you know, it's kind of upon the user to go in, find the time slot and figure out what's actually live and streaming now. And I think if there was a way to just say, take me to what's live, you know, in domains or OER one or two, I think that would have been helpful too for folks that were kind of popping in in different time zones or coming back from a break or, you know, what have you. I did have a, so I'm sorry, I don't mean to talk so much, but one more idea because this intrigues me. So we originally were talking about each of the tracks being a channel and going live consistently and having commercials between them and bumpers. And so there was this idea that you were sucked into the channel and you couldn't leave, right? So one of the things I was thinking about but I had overbooked, I made too many recordings so that I had no spaces, but I wanted to keep at least one space open or even do this to people without them knowing and had people like in the 80s, they would hijack channels and they would come in and be like, you capitalist scum down with, you know, all of your shit. And so like someone would break into a presentation it would be like static. And then we would get someone to do like, you don't use open source software, you're not running Linux, you're a sell out and then get out. And that would be like the jamming of the sessions to really make chaos. And like that would be so cool that each session would then have these like wild cards and people wouldn't know they're coming and it would be funny because they would be from the community. And like you would break into a session and say something funny and then break out and people would be like, what the fuck? I was getting very Dr. Oblivion vibes. Yeah, he said that. I'm all for Easter eggs and wild cards and things but I think at the point where you're willingly creating chaos, confusion is tough for from the perspective of supporting and minimizing confusion and chaos. So we'll leave that for a future discussion. If you will it, it is no dream, Laurie. Oh gosh. What else? Any other? The blast, that was hilarious. That was very, very fun. What was the blast? Sorry. The yokey. Oh yeah. The yokey. The yokey. Yeah, I love that it was a mixer to get everyone in the system beforehand. I think I checked the numbers and we had something like 50 or 60 people already in Discord the night before the conference which is really good. So I thought the karaoke did a great job to kind of bring people in and it was also super entertaining. It was so funny. Isabel and I were just having a dance party in the office like behind me here like we were just laughing so much. We had a couple of ringers because I was really nervous because I was having all sorts of technical problems and like not doing a very good job but that people were just there to hang out. Again, it was that spirit that kind of set stage for the next couple of days because I think Lauren, am I right? There were like 200 people of the 250 that registered that were in Discord, which is just ridiculous. By the end of day two, we had over, I think it was something like 209 participants in Discord and that's not including staff, admins and co-chairs. So it really just was that role. But yeah, and to think that Discord is really like one level of engagement. You didn't need Discord to participate. You could have just been in the video player on the site. You could have just been on Twitter or whatever. So the fact, I was not expecting those numbers in Discord. I was like, let's get half. Half of the people in Discord, I'll be happy. So the fact that almost everyone was in there, by the end it was just, yeah, my Discord dreams came true. And I have to say, Rajeev, a keynote came in and karaoke, which I thought for me was another really good sign. I think Marin said something like, you know you've killed it, the pre-conference prep when your keynote is karaoke already. And I think, yeah, that was super nice just to see, you know, because I think everybody knows like, you know, that matters. Like the social element of this stuff matters and the tone you set, despite the technology matters. And we got really lucky. So that was awesome. Thank you both for hanging out in there and giving us courage as we sang. Yeah, and it's cool to see what lessons that we can learn and bring to the table each time from the main spaces. Like Discord is very much used by gamers. And I also think of Twitch as an element that we kind of brought to this in some ways, that idea that something's happening live and that there's this channel of people talking about it while it's happening live and the presenters are able to respond to those people in the chat. I think that was the piece that felt so unlike, you know, a Zoom meeting, you know, to where people are like, wow, this is different. For academics that don't necessarily live their lives, you know, like jumping through Twitch and, you know, talking in Discord voice channels or something, it was very different and unique and exciting, I think too, which I think is awesome to be able to say like, hey, we're gonna try something completely different here. And yet the speakers were still fully protected, you know, whether they were kind of in their pre-recorded bubble and they kind of came in and they were talking live Q&A about something that was happening or whether they were in StreamYard and had the comments happening from YouTube. So I really liked that and that was something we kind of wanted to make a priority from the beginning, you know, so we didn't have Zoom bombers or anything. But going back to what you were saying, Tim, just about lessons learned in Discord, I mean, and into the future, I think there's so much more potential in Discord, so many areas that we can still explore in tools that we can still bring into Discord. You know, I brought in a few to kind of do pre-scheduled announcements and Twitter and things like that, but, you know, you have a lot of live streaming options in Discord that we didn't really touch the surface on. You know, you can integrate with things like Spotify or, you know, I think there's a whole world of DS 106 radio that could be integrated with Discord really nicely. But then I think we also learned that Discord isn't great for everything. So the voice channels weren't as popular as I thought they might have been, so we could have, you know, maybe in the future we'll have more guidance or, I guess, structure around those, but overall, there's a lot of potential there and I'm excited to continue exploring. And I think there's some buzz that there might be a reclaim hosting Discord maybe when it works. Yeah, there is, inspired by the conference itself, working on trying to incorporate more of a casual way to get a water cooler channel going or even ask for help and support tickets and stuff like that or just talk through scenarios where you have to schedule a meeting to get on a video call or something like that. I think there's something to be said about having the Discord space for work because it's so easy to pop in and out of voice channels and that sort of thing that it's easier to kind of stir up conversations within a remote team that you wouldn't get normally as like having the scheduled and like formal conversations in a video call. So, yeah. It's funny, Slack feels corporate now. It's like we use Slack all the time. It's like Slack is like the Zoom, you know? It's like that's the corporate office space and you want something more fun to be the water cooler chat type of space, right? It's interesting. And there's going to be something beeping in the background. I apologize. But it's interesting too, because Michael Branson Smith said when he popped into one of the Discord chats is like, so what's the backup for Discord given that's going to be pulled up? And like, I think Discord is a great tool and I'm all ready for it, but like that's maybe why people are pushing towards some open source options like Mattermost and stuff. And I don't know what those integrate, but like it's a good question to ask early on, not that I'm like Discord, it's got to be open source. Like I'm not pulling out any credentials, but like these platforms are the future in terms of right now for a social connection and exploring them and knowing about them and us as a, you know, as a group kind of playing with them is super important. And I think that was like the lesson learned for me about Discord is like, this is an ed tech community. These are people who are in the space trying to figure out how to make community happen online. And like to go back to the like norms of like, yes, let's do it in Zoom, maybe a Google Meetup or like, you know, just like, yeah, let's kill all excitement immediately, right? Like we needed to do this. Like it was actually like incumbent upon us as the ed tech superstars that we are to step it up to A game and we did it. And to that point, we had a little bit of a scare because StreamYard got bought out just a few months before the conference was to begin. And there was a moment there were like, what's about to happen? You know, we had planned a lot of stuff around using StreamYard and are they gonna, you know, close shop or whatever, but at least now not been lots of wood for the time being StreamYard is still being run as an independent thing separate from the group that bought them out. So, but it's always a concern. Do you think we could have done this in DS1 to 6 TV? I think we could have. Okay, it would have been a lot more work. Yeah. No, we couldn't know. It would have been insane. It would have been OBS. Everybody download OBS. It is no dream. This is what I was told. Michael Branson Smith, we have one more thing. We need you to do one last request. Could you just do this, please? So any final thoughts or comments about OER or Bidomains? I love my shirt. I love my mug. I just need to say that. I know I need to order a mug. I saw it post on Twitter and it was so cool. You made it. You made it in the mug too Lauren. And then, oh yeah, I saw my tote bag back there. It was a lot of fun. I had a blast. These types of events usually really kind of motivate me for the next year of stuff until I can get to the next big conference. But at the same time, virtual workshops and virtual training usually drain me because you're just kind of sitting in front of a screen all day and I have to say I didn't feel drained sitting in front of my screen all day for this conference. I mean, obviously there was an exhaustion that came from waking up at four in the morning or 3.30 in the morning. But not the draining that comes from sitting at a screen at your desk for eight hours. I felt that invigoration and not like, yeah, we did it again kind of thing after this conference. And so I thought to some degree that has to be a win, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I was definitely reflecting on it that it reminds me why I'm in the job I'm in now like as the community as a whole. And I think after this year of the pandemic has just taken a toll on all of us it's just like so refreshing to have that sort of community and yet that's like after a year that's been so isolating for a lot of people. So, yeah. That's a great point. We'll start playing the next one. Yeah, people are going to start were like, what do we do for Domain's 2022? I know, exactly. And Lauren's like, but I will say though, on that point and I'm not suggesting another Domain's Conference anytime soon, but I am saying what it did do. Like I really dug the prerecordings. I really dug like hanging out with people and talking with them and getting their story. Like I really like this format just for some things we could do, you know, whether it's kind of, you know, hopefully we have in-person road shows but should we not? I think we have a pretty bitching platform to turn people into and be like, hey, this is how we're going to do it because I did feed off the connection and it did like you were saying, Meredith remind me why we're here and like you Lauren, like give me that energy for what we do. And it depends a lot on remembering we're part of a broader network of folks who are trying to figure out similar things. So for me, it was what I needed and I just didn't realize how much I needed until I was in it. And then I was just like, I couldn't stop. And then even when it ended, I was like going through like the shakes because I needed it so bad. It was crazy. I also just have to say too, like, you know, having the Discord platform and the work it takes to get everyone on boarded in that system and now they're there. It feels silly to just shut down that server and call it an archive, you know. There's so much need all the time for facilitating community conversations and leaning on what other people are doing. And you know, where can I go to chat with other people in my similar situation? We have our community forums, obviously, but the personal connections that you can make in Discord, you have the direct messages, you have the ability to blast a bunch of people and the conversation and foundation is already there. So in some ways I want to keep it around, you know, and it's, so it's just, I don't know. It was an interesting decision when DigitalOcean, as soon as that Discord, like they had a Discord, we borrowed a bit from DigitalOcean. They had a Discord, they had the StreamYard thing. And then day two, like the conference was over, it was like bloop, it's down. And I wonder, A, your thinking and B, I kind of agree with you. Well, but the same thing is like to, Lauren, to counter yourself earlier in this thing, it was like people hope and dream after a conference, like, oh, I'm going to go back and do all this. And I bet half the people that were in Discord will never open it up again until the next event that requires them to, like, it's, you know, there's still a little bit of activity there for sure. But it's also like, there's something to be said for this was a moment in which we were all together in a space and now we've gone on, you know, to do other things and, you know, trying to be like, oh, we're going to continue to share resources in here and continue to do that. It might not be, you know, it might not be square peg round hole kind of situation where it just doesn't work. One more place to check, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, now it's another inbox that I've got to be aware of, right? Yeah. No, that's very true. And I think that's probably. Don't let him kill you, Drew, you're too hard. Yeah. Don't let him, if we listen to him, we wouldn't be here right now doing this picture and laughing. You know, it's, it's a trade-off thing of, you know, if it's longer than two days, it's, you know, it's like, oh gosh, this is just still going on. But then. Listen to him. Just put a logo back over his head again. Oh, wait. Drew. Here we go. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. We did it. We did it again. We got rid of him again. Yeah, I can't believe I helped him, you know. There we go. Nice. Are you kidding? No, I, well done team. I think we did a great job. It was a blast. You all ruled. It was fun. It was fun. I want more of that in my life. Enough of this dog walking shit in Italy. I want to see that. Oh, that's nice. Well, yeah, I think hopefully at the end of the tunnel, we'll all be able to start traveling and meet up soon. In the meantime, this is a pretty good middle ground. Yeah, it's great. All right, is there a closing outro that I need to do? I'm going to do a special one. No, no, I'm going to do a special one. Yeah, ready? And pull everybody out once I do it. I want to go to black. Faith to black. Ready? Faith to black. OK. Nom, nom, nom.