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Getting Into Live Streaming

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I'm thinking about doing a regular live stream about serverless AWS.

Something like "Fun with AWS" so it has some resemblance to the online course called "MVPs with AWS" I'm currently planning to make.

I'd play around with some AWS tech that I currently find interesting, nothing serious. Basically, like "let's play," but with AWS.

Anyway, this raised some questions:

  • How often would I have to do this so that people would watch it regularly? Would every two weeks okay? Does this have to be happening every week?
  • How long does this have to be? One hour? Two? Could it be flexible or would this mess with peoples "free-time" schedules?
  • Which times are the best "to hit the US market"? People need to be awake and not working, I guess :D
  • Is watching some dude biting out his teeth at CloudFormation or playing around with KI and XR in any way interesting? I don't watch live streams or listen to podcasts, but I hear people loving such things.

These are just the questions, on the top of my head, maybe I forgot something important? I think technically I'm all set; I got a PC, a right mic and a fast unmetered Internet connection.

Anyway, would be cool if you, the people of dev.to, could help me out here :)

Also, how are the dev.to live streaming features coming along? :D

Top comments (13)

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Also, how are the dev.to live streaming features coming along? :D

Folks can follow along or get involved here:

Self-serve live broadcasting #2317

coreyja avatar
coreyja commented on Apr 06, 2019

I'm making this as a place for discussion following this post by @benhalpern dev.to/devteam/dev-feature-idea-se...

I wanted to open this up for discussion and figure out what features might be involved in the dev.to build. I am also willing to work on this project and contribute to it and this seemed like a good place to start!

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. I've tried live streaming coding a handful of times before, but felt like there was never a good platform for developer focused live streaming.

Describe the solution you'd like I think that the best way to get this started is probably to embed one or more streaming platforms such as Twitch and Youtube Live. Most of the commentators in the original post seemed to think embedding was a good place to start.

One question this raises is how to deal with chat Ben mentioned in the original post, that dev.to has some in-house chat architecture build. This is one potential solution, but means that each stream may need to manage two chats. The main streaming platforms chat, and the dev.to chat Another solution would be to completely embed a streaming platform(s) including the chat. Both Twitch(1) and Youtube Live (2) support this behavior. A downside to this approach is that it makes it harder for the dev community to moderate directly.

restream.io does offer some sort of chat consolidation tools, but I don't know much about their offerings or how to integrate with them.

Describe alternatives you've considered One alternative is to host the live streaming platform natively. I will admit I don't have much experience in this domain, but I feel like this is a large amount of work to build and maintain, that is fairly tangentially to the current dev.to offerings and (uneducatedly) assumed infrastructure. However a native build might make the chat question easier, as having a native chat offering already is a huge plus!

(1) dev.twitch.tv/docs/embed/everything/ (2) support.google.com/youtube/answer/...

For more context:

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coreyja profile image
Corey Alexander

👋 I got that issue started and have a little work in process branch going! Would love to get some other people involved, even if that's just giving some feedback on the ideas in the issue or whatever!

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itsasine profile image
ItsASine (Kayla)

I don't watch live streams or listen to podcasts, but I hear people loving such things.

That's kinda why I wouldn't suggest doing it :P If you don't know what people look for in the media, maybe start with another form that's straighter forward like Youtube uploads. Then you can edit and publish on your own time and people can watch whenever.

To be fair though, I don't understand the appeal of live streaming at all. I'd rather play Fallout than watch some dude playing Fallout.

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kayis profile image
K

That's kinda why I wouldn't suggest doing it :P

Yes, people here don't seem pro-streaming. Maybe it's a bad idea, but that's why I asked :)

If you don't know what people look for in the media, maybe start with another form that's straighter forward like Youtube uploads. Then you can edit and publish on your own time, and people can watch whenever.

My idea was to get something going that isn't as serious as recording a video and cut it.

Doing some stuff that I don't really need for my job, just because it could be interesting and maybe having a few people around that throw in ideas I wouldn't have when doing this on my own. Experimenting with new tech etc.

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georgecronje1 profile image
georgecronje1

I actually think it could be quite cool. I feel like you'd kinda have to lean into the struggles of trying to figure something out. i.e. Make a bit of a comedy out of it.
I think it could be quite entertaining. Would actually be cool to see the thought process of another dev when trying to solve some problems.
I'd watch it :P

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kayis profile image
K

Yes, there seem to be different kind of streamers

Some do stream 15-20h a week, so basically all their dev time.

Some do 1-2h on special topics always the same time in the week.

Both seems to have their share of followers.

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peterwitham profile image
Peter Witham

This question could not be more timely, I was considering this very thing at the weekend.

I normally make my videos for YouTube and they are (hopefully) all nicely polished and complete, but I started to think about whether to stream my making of them as a rough live cut for those that might be interested.

It feels like there is almost a sub-culture of those out there that like to watch people coding, to be clear I'm not one of them. It does seem more and more people are streaming their development on either YouTube or Twitch.

I don't think live streaming coding will be the next viral video, however, I do see some areas that I think would benefit from doing it.

  • Exposure, think of it as free skill marketing.
  • A body of work archived away ready to stream again from the recording for anyone interested. Maybe prospective clients who want to see if you know you're stuff.
  • A schedule to hold yourself to which means more learning and more productivity.
  • A chance to possibly expand your network of people and get live help when you hit problems.

These are just a couple of thoughts on the topic, I still have yet to decide if I want to do it. One thing to be careful of would be to forget that you are streaming and expose sensitive information be it personal or otherwise.

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kayis profile image
K • Edited

Yes, I saw these benefits too.

But I had the idea of going more into a gaming like format.

When I'd upload a pre-cut video it has a defined start and end and a purpose to teach or show something I know about.

The live stream would have a general direction and a topic for every stream, but not the purpose to teach something. Like gamers stream how they play, because they have fun doing it, I have fun trying out new tech.

If people like to watch other people doing things that they consider fun, maybe some people would watch me and if I do things that are fun for me, I'd be more motivated to do it regularly.

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kayis profile image
K • Edited

As I said, I'm not into watching streams/podcasts in general, haha. So I totally understand you.

I also thought aboit recording the streams for later, but maybe the live stream would lead to some interaction and interesting outcomes.

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kayis profile image
K • Edited

Pretty cool, thank you :)

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