And we will take, I will take questions from you about your work and your creative process. Um, and because that's what we just love to talk about here on watching work, and you can get in touch with me in so many ways. And Lolly will tell you how. Yes. So if you're watching here with us on zoom, uh, you can ask a question by using the raise your hand function, which is in the reactions tab, likely at the bottom of your screen, if you have any trouble accessing it, just let me know in the chat and I'll help you out. If you are watching with us live on howl round, you can ask questions via the public theaters, Twitter or Instagram accounts or via the watch me work Twitter account, which is at watch me work SLP with the hashtag howl round. That's hashtag H O W L R O U N D. Fantastic. All right, let's get started. We have a timer to do. All right, all right. Oh, my default microphone is changed. Hey, hey, hey, we are back. We are back. Feel free to raise your hand if you have a question. Yeah, please. Oh, looks like we got a question from Rebecca. You should be able to unmute now. Hi, Susan, Laurie. Hey, darling. Hey, sister, how are you doing? Good to see you. Good. I'm good. How are you? Good, good. Good. So just reporting in. I I investigated substack. Yeah, that's what you said. I have, well, at first it was like, oh, this is going to be so much work. So, um, but then I've been writing and I just started posting at my medium side about about the, you know, big explosion and spill of vinyl chloride in in Ohio. Because it's near where I grew up. Um, yeah. And and it got me thinking about sort of the difference between medium, which is longer than a tweet, but not a marketing blog, not that length. So it's a longer piece. And substack that could be used for, you know, some interesting, um, explorations. So I'm thinking of doing a micro memoir because people keep saying you need to write a memoir, but I don't really want to until after I I'm not sure I want to at all. But after I, you know, the manuscript hopefully gets picked up and and that micro memoir is going to be called Toxic Exposures because I love the title. Yeah, I mean, it's both the actual Toxic Exposures growing up in Northeast Ohio. Substack is a a site for putting your writing up and people can either pay to read it or you can just let people read it. And I haven't made any decisions about all that. But it feels like, oh, that would be an interesting way to just get at. You know, seeing how I can present myself to the public and also write about the stuff that I know. So so I have another medium piece that's going to go up first and then and I'll go back to figuring out sort of this great micro memoir. Sounds exciting. Sounds exciting. I'm excited. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Love the update, girl. Thank you. Yeah. Well done. Good job. Good job.  So you're like, let me look at Substack and just see if there's anything out there, you know. Yeah. And in in the sort of all of the instructions on Substack was. You know, you can post on both, people can go between the two. And so it's not like it's the only Substack somehow owns what what gets posted. So and I, you know, the reaction to.  That was awful. But it's been happening in Ohio and Western PA for decades. Right. Going back to the fifties. Right. So and it's not so much that they should be punished for that. Or that, you know, mine, but that we thought it was a good thing. And that's sort of what I want to get at is we thought all that oil and lamp black in the fire in the rubber industry were good things. So and then, you know, we ended up with flames coming out of faucets because of fracking. So like, what is what does that mean? And as a memoir, it feels a little more accessible. Sounds good. Yeah. Yay. Yay. Thank you. I'm applauding you in advance. Thank you, Rebecca. That's what we should do. I just think that's what we should start doing when we go to like plays a lot in advance with the light with the light when we go go with lights to half. We go to people who love just a plot. I love it. Yeah, Jesse. Hey, Jesse, I can't I can't hear you, though, brother. Oh, we can't hear you. You're unmuted, but but. And there's a volume up on your pretend to know. Yeah. But you're muted. You're Mike. Maybe you're Mike and you're on your on your computer. Here, I'm going to mute and then unmute you again. And so. Doesn't mean. No, now you're invisible.  Look, yeah, I'm like, wait a minute, you're walking behind people who are on that was weird. He walked by Andrew and that was weird. I was like, wait a minute, that guy. Hi. Hey, that was cool. Yes. So I'm actually here in writing ensemble class right now and where I'm actually working on a monologue piece right now. And my question essentially was. How do you what what is the best way to generate a sense of realism in a play or especially through your writing and the words that you use? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Great. Jesse, so define realism, please. What it means to you. What are you talking about? Essentially trying to get the characters to seem as if. It's real. Like, things are really going on at this very moment in time. And maybe like the word choices that they use. And the different connotations on them, I don't know if that's making sense, but. Because in the past, have you have you go ahead, go ahead, talk to me. You had difficulty working on a monologue from a play that I'm sort of toying with it's based on how politics, the pandemic and essentially low pay for public school teachers are affecting them so much to where they're leaving their jobs midway through the entire. School year, I'm an actual teacher in a public school. And so it's something that I'm dealing with now and I know I have conversations that I have with coworkers and I feel like, OK, these are. Very interesting conversations and I feel as if I could use them as material. But it's like, I don't want to take every word that they say. But I want to, you know, just use it majority of it. Some of it, you know, to create a story. Right, right, right, right. OK, OK. How do I create that realism? Yeah, it's a very it's a really great sense of a wonderful project that you're that you're working on public school teachers, teachers, any kind of teachers are heroes in my book. And it sounds like your colleagues are you are having incredible conversations with your colleagues. I would just say I would suggest that you are very mindful about kind of like you to use your words, using what your colleagues say to generate your own material. That is not what I would suggest to do. I would suggest that you turn on your imagination. What grade do you teach, bro? I teach six, seven to eight grade. My son is in sixth grade. I hope you're not one of his teachers. Please don't leave. No, no, no, no, no. But, you know, I would I would suggest, you know, like his students say, use your imagination, use your imagination and create yourself some characters if you want or formally interview your colleagues and credit them with documentary style theater. You know what I mean? But you want to formally you can you can formally and make it all above board, you know, because you don't want to be one of those people who rips off people, right? Make it above board, interview them and and and, you know, your colleague Joe and your colleague Jasmine or whatever and and and present them in a really upfront way. And then you can tweak and change what they say, but be really clear that these are your colleagues speaking. These are actual people. These are not from your imagination. OK. If that's appealing, then that's one way to do it. You interview your colleagues and then you assemble what they say.  There might be a better term for it, but, you know, or you make stuff up. But it's a tricky thing. So which which right now is more appealing to you. What do you think? Documentary theater actually pulling them aside to get their views on how things are going and what they've experienced and then taking that and then creating different characters around that. Right. Credit them, please, please credit them.  And there might be some legal stuff that you got, some a few legal things you got to organize to make that correct. You know, you want to come correct. OK. But that's it's a beautiful sounds like a beautiful project. Just just get the paperwork, get the come correct. OK. Yeah, I will. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. We have Kimmy D. There he goes. There he goes in back and that's so fun. OK, we have Kimmy D. And then Ben, you'll be after. Hey, Kim. Hi. Hi. I'm on the same time zone. Finally, I'm back in New Jersey. My best friend died and I am the exception tricks of his will and his family is not very kind. And I'm really going through it. And so I'm so grateful for everybody to be here. And I'm so I'm sorry I'm crying. I'm just trying to hold it together. But I am going to come see you, though. That's the one good thing I can see you in the when you're back at the public. So I get to see you in person for a change. Oh, thank you. So thank you and thank you, everybody, for being here and meeting. It means a lot to me to have this space. So as a comedian and as a writer, I don't know how to survive my pain without writing about it. And I definitely want to write about this because I don't think we talk. Enough in art about grief as much as somebody died and then this happened. And we don't really talk about this human experience or animalistic experience because animals go through grief, too. And I really want to like delve into it because I'm in it. And it and it's. Every emotion all at once, all the time. So I was wondering, how could I cultivate material while I'm in this mess because it makes more sense to go back to my notes later than to try to recall everything and then make a play. So how would you would you suggest that, like. I take notes while I'm going through whatever it is I'm going through. Does this make any sense? Is this question. No, that's exactly that's exactly what you should do. Right. If it's messy, right about the right, describe the mess. You know, OK, just just just show up every day and write something about what's going on. That makes sense.   You know, like these are the kinds of things that are popping in my head. Why am I on this plane going across the country for a shitty reason? Why why do we do these things in life as adults? And then and I'm just so in the middle of it, I don't know how to. Cultivate and mine the experiences to make art later. Maybe you don't have to cultivate and mine the experiences to make art later. Maybe you just have to live it.  Who, you know, maybe you just have to like live it. But if you need to write about it, write about it. If you write about it in your notebook, that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to turn to art. But as you said, as a comedian and as a writer, the best way for you to process your stuff is by writing about it. But just because you write about it doesn't mean it's going to become art. OK, not everything written down is to share. We know, yeah, those of us who have notebooks or or, you know, angry emails and we don't send them have everything written as to share. Sometimes the writing is just for you. Maybe this writing is just for you, you know. But if you want to keep track, which it sounds like you do and process, which it sounds like you do, then show up every day in your notebook and write stuff down. I've never I'm 61 and I've had parents die and friends die. But this is hitting me way different. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you. I appreciate your love and support in this space. Thank you so much, everybody. I'm so sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Keep showing up to your to your notebooks, you know. Yeah, I could help and keep coming back, because we'll be here. I'm so grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Kimme, sending you love and support. Thank you so much. Love in the chat. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Welcome. We have Ben next. And then I think we have Shane on deck after that. Hey, Ben. Hi, hi, everyone. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here and ask a question. Kimme, that really resonated a lot with me. I also work in mental health advocacy. So if you want to connect, I'm happy to help you to find some mental health resources to navigate grief. I'm a two-time suicide attempt survivor from 2011, and I talk about mental health, suicide prevention, death and all of my work.  I've been there, so I'm happy to offer any resources. I just wanted to share that and I'm new here too. So I'm not sure how many questions I can ask. I kind of have two if that's OK, if not, someone can tell me. So I really need some help if you have any resources to be able to or what tools you may use to kind of grade yourself if you've had a successful writing session. For me, sometimes the like administrative things of being a creative creep in during writing sessions. And I'm trying to determine if that still counts as progress within the writing session or if I should be blocking everything out to be able to focus on just being the creative side.  So you have to like juggle all the hats and I'm multifaceted. So I can do that. But am I being successful? Right, right. Wow. That's that's a really good question, Ben. And I appreciate the the services and help that you're sort of generously offering on your very first visit to watch me work. But that's very, very loving. We appreciate that. Grading. This is an interesting. The moon must be in something or other. This the the vibe here is really intense today. Grading yourself for your writing sessions. So so you can you can sort of track your progress, right? And that's why we use a timer. And again, we always say I always suggest you use a timer that is just a timer and not your phone. OK, so you use a time like a kitchen timer kind of thing that will help you get away from your phone and get away from your messages and Instagram and whatnot. And one way to track your progress in your writing session is to. Oh, thank you, Becca. The moon is in Gemini. That's interesting is to. Say I'm going to show up every day for X amount of minutes. So 20 minutes is a wonderful time amount amount of time, right? And then if you want to grade your progress, Ben, you always get an A plus. Ben, I'm serious. You and you can say SLP gives me an A plus every day. I give you a plus every day and I don't even know you brother.   Because that's the tip of the iceberg or the amount of love that you've got to start or continue actually to give yourself. Good job, right? You're doing a good job. No, I'm serious. This is this is what we've got to get those those those unhelpful things out of our heads and bring in more of the helpful good stuff. Good job. OK, so that's how you can grade yourself. Show up. Just show up the very first award I ever got. I think I was in kindergarten or something. Anyway, and they gave out awards. I got an award for perfect attendance and right then it clicked in my mind. That's all I'm going to do. I'm just going to keep showing up. That's all I'm doing. I just show up. Here I am, right? And that's basically it. So you get an A plus. All we want you to show up. With the intent to write and see what happens. OK. I appreciate that. That's very empowering. Do I still get? Yes, you do. Here we are. We're here. So I with the help of a friend who's on this call as well, who I won't shout out because I don't want her to be embarrassed. But I was able to get equity and verse grant from the Poetry Foundation to develop a really ambitious idea. And, you know, I have to have something for them by September of 2023 and I work. I'm a procrastinator and I and this is a really big organization and I don't want to ruin it because they they gave me ten thousand dollars to work on this and they also give away millions of dollars. And I one day would like to receive millions of dollars. And I don't think that's going to happen if I procrastinate and don't do a good job. So I want to see how do you. Oh, my friend, Ashley, said it's OK to shout her out. Ashley Calhoun is my friend who helped me. She's an excellent fundraiser and fund development person, especially for creatives. And I feel so grateful to have her on my team. She also helps my nonprofit that I have here in Detroit. So thank you, Ashley. She helped me get my she actually helped me get twenty thousand dollars from the Poetry Foundation. Half of it is for a poetry slam that my non proper produced. And the other half is for me as an artist and it's really, really weird because I've never been given this money to just do art from my own brain as opposed to producing programming for the community. So I'm really I'm excited and scared. Like Little Red Riding Hood and Into the Woods. So I love some advice on how to manage, I guess, imposter syndrome, procrastination and then just to kind of hold oneself accountable to because I'm really good at putting things on the calendar. I'm really good at like, at this time, I'm going to do this. Do I do it?  Yeah, I mean, that's a yes. That's something I enjoy talking about quite a bit. So thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about making a schedule, keeping a schedule and the way you hypnotize yourself. So first, we're going to. And also and also budgeting, also budgeting to stay with money. Yes, the both. Well, the money that they gave me not overspending because it has to happen with the amount of money that I have. OK, well, that I don't know about because I don't know exactly what you're doing. So you're going to have to talk with actually maybe can talk because she knows maybe a little more specifically. But I'm doing this. This is what we're going to start by doing. This is the words come out of your mouth, right? And they're going into your ears. OK, she be I want you to be very mindful, Ben, about what you say about yourself.  Don't hypnotize yourself, brother.  Find a different way. You know, hey, I'm working on getting my work done. OK, sometimes I have a block and I got to work through it. Find ways you're you're creative. Let's find the find some ways to reframe some of those things you're saying about yourself so that you can set yourself up for success, because you're the best hypnotizer of Ben in the universe.  So that's one thing that helps tremendously. OK. A schedule. What time of the day is your most productive time of day? The morning for me. Right. How early? 8 a.m. Yeah, 8 is good. I mean, you like sitting down at your desk or whatever 8 a.m. 8 a.m. to get up to start working by. I have to schedule in time for me to be on the Internet before I actually start working. So 8 a.m. is where I start so I can start working by 10. Like 10 by 10. You have to be on the Internet for two hours. What do you do on the Internet? You know, email. OK.  Or well, otherwise it's going to distract me as I'm trying to write. Yeah, I do. I do. OK. OK. OK. Well, we'll just we'll just. And so you have from 10 until when to to write three, three. OK, great. So I can probably have a break. Great, great. So let's make it from 10 to 11. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, we're going to lower the bar. We're going to lower the bar and give you an hour to work. If you work for one hour every day, OK, from now, 27th of February until. Let's just say the 27th of August, right? Then you'll have a month to rewrite or you'll have it's due September 1st. Or September, when did you say it was to accept the program? I have to send a report September 30th. Great. So it's great. So you'll have so you'll have time to rewrite or polish and have it, right? If you show up every single day for one hour, one hour, then you can like LolliGag, do whatever you want for the other several hours until three o'clock.  I do. Thank you. When you get on the computer, I want you to after you've done your emails, you've had two hours to emails. Can you turn off the Wi-Fi connection, please? You know how to do that on your computer? OK.  Yes, yes. I'm having withdrawal already. And I haven't done it yet. I'm having withdrawal already. OK, well, well, welcome to your writing life. OK, so because what you're doing, you're having what you're going to have withdrawal from the internet, bullshit that's out there. It's not really helping you at all. And but you're going to make way for you're going to make room for this beautiful, beautiful stuff, right? That's called your beautiful writing that we love so much already. OK, and that's how you talk about your writing all the time. My beautiful writing that I love so much already. My beautiful writing that I'm doing. My beautiful project that I'm doing. OK. OK. Hey, hey, because because why not talk about yourself with words of love? Why not talk about your work with words of love and appreciation? It's a gift. You know what I mean? So why not say? And you don't have to put yourself up. We talked about imposter syndrome, which that's not believing that you deserve whatever it is that you have. Is that what that is? What is that? Yeah, that's what it is. Right. OK, well, then you can just turn around.  I deserve this opportunity. I worked hard for it. I work hard. I put in the time. I do the work. I deserve to have this opportunity. You know, start talking to yourself with words of love or continue to talk to yourself with words of love, because I'm sure you do it already. OK. OK, yeah, I know you give that look. Yeah. OK. And you must promise me you must come back and hang with us on a regular basis. Like, yeah, R.S.P.P. for the next two days. Yeah. OK, OK, well, good. Well, you must come back and hang with us like, you know, like like Rebecca does and like Timothy does and like, you know, you just come back, come and hang with us, because we will continue to, you know, encourage you to speak about your work and about yourself with words of love and encouragement. It makes a huge difference and show up for yourself every single day.  You were at you were you have turned off the Wi-Fi at 11 o'clock or 10 o'clock and you got your timer set. You can do it in three 20 minute increments so you don't get overwhelmed. Three 20 minute increments and you set it and you work and the beat of it goes off. You can relax and you turn it on again. OK, every day if you do it, you can you can get there. All right, I appreciate that. Thank you. We appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you, Ben, and welcome. I think we have Hank up next. I think we're making the space available. Appreciate it. I'm Hank. I'm calling from Atlanta, Georgia. And and Ben, I really appreciate the question you asked about keeping track of time. I actually have my timer right here, so I'm really so glad that that says my own thing. Really, during the pandemic, I gave myself the assignment to write a six word play every day for a year, inspired by your your volume of plays, which I read. And and the answer you gave to Kimmy before, I wonder if it applies here, is there anything I should try to do with that? Or is that and I would sometimes send those plays out to five or six people? I sometimes run a Valentine to my spouse. I mean, and sometimes or to my my my children. So it really had its own audience on this, but I have this collection of plays and part of me just thinks, OK, it was for the moment there. But I wonder if you had any thoughts about about that bulk of materials or also maybe it falls in what you said that Kimmy is sometimes the most important writing is from the soul and it will manifest itself in other other vehicles, other venues. Yeah, that's a great question, Hank. And because you're asking the question, I'm thinking, well, there they are plays, right? OK, well, you could say, well, plays need to be performed. They might need to be performed. And if you have the desire to perform them, you can perform them or you can get and or you can get your friends to join you and perform them. That would be fun. You could do it live if you have a local hangout bar, coffee house. You know, you could put on a series of shows. You could do it on YouTube, you know, you could record them. That can be fun. You could actually have a lot of fun with it. You could do them all in a row in in in chronological order. You could pick just your favorites and do those. But you could perform them. Maybe it's performing something that's interesting to you. Yeah. And to some degree, I consider myself a writer. I like sitting in the back of the theater rather than being at the front. But but but I also like producing and and bringing people together, connecting people and and sharing that way. You can then you can be the producer, writer and maybe director or get someone if you're not into director, get someone and then actually produce them. You know what I mean? And again, in a coffee shop or on YouTube or in a theater, if you have a theater that you love. Or a bar, I mean, that those kinds of I love that a six word play. It's it's six words of dialogue. So I do have some license with the stage directions. Wow, that's really great. Six words. That's fantastic. Now, that's I appreciate you. You're the inspiration for that, too, having seen the the the three hundred and sixty five plays a year. So having seen a number of those in different venues. So I appreciate your inspiration for that. It's fun, but great for you to keep for having started it and having kept going, having gotten to the finish line, too. It's really great. There are so many great venues in Atlanta and such a wonderful community in Atlanta that it could be fun for you to actually take them into the community and and have them perform, you know. Great. Thank you for that inspiration. I appreciate it. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you, and we have a few minutes left if anyone wants to ask a question or share thoughts in our last five minutes. Karina. Hi, Karina. Hi. This is actually my first time here. My friend told me about this, so I'm here. I'm really excited to be here. Hi, it's really nice to talk with you. I guess my advice that I would love is I've written a couple of plays. I do it on my side for fun. I produce them sometimes with my friends. And I have a lot of really passionate opinions and a lot of the things I write obviously come from that place because you want to obviously are going to write what you're passionate about. But I sometimes have the problem of letting my own thoughts and opinions like I want to make them so clear with the piece. But I know it's so important for plays to be to be able to resonate with people in different ways that suits them. And I have this problem where I want, again, to sort of have a character say exactly what I would say if I was in that situation or exactly what I want to say word to word to people, which I know is not helpful because the character is not me. And I know that that's the case, but I have this like trouble with it. And I was wondering if you had any words of advice about that. Well, that's a really cool question, Karina. I wonder if the character is in fact you and do you need to be the character? And might it be might you be in the show? It's OK. It's OK to be yourself. Yeah. If you feel like your characters sound like you, maybe they are or the one character, you know, that's OK. Does that make sense? Could you? Yeah. Sorry. Sorry, I just got muted again accidentally. Yeah, I actually never thought of that. And I have I have allowed myself to do certain writing projects or whatever it is where I do and I need to express my thoughts.  And that's really therapeutic for me. But I never really thought that that could manifest into an actual play. And that makes a lot of sense. And I do, I guess I am a lot of that does come from the frustration that like I'm not able to have the conversation I want to be having for whatever reason with certain people in my life or they aren't going the way I want them to be going. And I guess a lot of my writing is a manifestation sort of against that frustration. But and you're right, that's like a valid thing that can be the case. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I think I think you should, yeah, just write the way you think it needs to sound. And if the character is you or you can have your the same name or a different whatever, but you can be OK with that. Yeah. And yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for coming to watch me work. Thank you so much. I just I just put in the chat our upcoming dates. Our March 6th, 20th and 27th and April 3rd and 10th. You should be able to sign up for all of those on the website. Turn out. Thanks, Lali. Thank you. We kill. Thank you. Right. And so we'll be back here next week. Thank you so much. Great.


Yeah, so my name is Jim, I'm the developer advocate with Harness, and yeah, I'm here to talk about some different ways we can manage our GitOps configuration and how to promote those changes between our different environments. So I'm going to share four different methods that I've seen teams adopt for different reasons, the first being an application where the application and configuration are in the same repository, second splitting up the configuration into its own repository where there's a branch per environment, next again another repository but a directory per environment, and finally splitting up multiple repositories one per environment. So let's start off looking at a repository, this is a node application where we got some application parts of it and then some parts that are specific to its runtime configuration. So I'm intentionally avoiding any file extensions here in case we could be talking about YAML, maybe we could be talking about Terraform, it was a great talk this morning about using Terraform in GitOps workflows, so intentionally not making this specific to any specific tool. So our GitOps tool of choice, maybe Argo, maybe Flux or something, would come along and watch the development file for development environment changes and production for production environment changes. So anytime we need to compare differences between those two environments we would be able to look in one place, so that would be kind of nice. And another advantage would be that the application and configuration are all version together. So if you're ever trying to reproduce a problem, track something down in the future, you don't have to connect the dots between multiple locations to get to the bottom of it. But this could be challenging where if you'd have some kind of CI process that's watching this application, it would have to be smart enough to not trigger when you're changing your configuration files. You could maybe end up in an endless loop there. It could also be challenging if you have to go to your team that's managing your GitOps tool every time you have a new application. Every single repository has its own application this way, it might not scale well. Up next, let's look at splitting out configuration into a separate repository where there's a branch per environment. So changes would always originate in the development branch and then get promoted to production by getting merged into production branch. So these two environments then are just only differing by time. Production is always destined to have development at some point in the future. So this can be challenging where if you make changes in your development environment that aren't ready for your production environment, you might end up having to do some complex cherry picking to pick up the only changes you wanted, so as you're trying to promote them. So that's something to keep in mind. So next, let's talk about a separate repository where there's directories per environment. This is very similar to the example we were seeing before from Bring Central, I believe, from Ivan. So it's good to see that they're using that. So each environment gets its own directory. And when we promote changes, we are ideally just copying files, drag and drop maybe. We should be able to do that. We shouldn't have to worry about the differences in these files. The promotion should be an operation that's a copy operation. The development and production specific files will have changes in them that are meant to be different, but everything else ideally we can just drag and drop. This is what Argo recommends, and I believe Flux as well. Organizations like Adobe and Intuit are definitely using this method. And this is what my previous company, we did, each team had its own repository like this. So it was definitely successful then. Something to keep in mind that I wanted to mention that if you're concerned about security with this kind of workflow, multiple developers being able to change the development and production. Something I just learned about is this feature in GitHub called Code Owners. It's apparently been in there for years. I just found out about it last month. But with this, you can do rules saying, hey, these people or these teams need to approve changes to these files or directories before they can be merged. So that's worth looking into if from a security standpoint, you might be concerned about this kind of workflow. So finally, let's look at splitting everything out with a repository per environment. So here it's the same idea where we have multiple environments, and the ability to copy from one to the other is what we're aiming for. A little more complex now that we have to have two repositories. We've got to make sure we're on the right branch in both of them before we start making any changes and trying to promote something. But that's another way. I've seen companies acquire other companies that are on a different Git solution. Maybe this is what you'd have to do in some interim solution to keep them working together, but being able to use their own Git solutions in the meantime until they all get on the same page. So I wanted to highlight that no matter what workflow you're going through, if you're finding that you're getting dozens or hundreds of lines of changes and that you're trying to review as you promote between environments, an artifact might be able to help you. So Helm charts, maybe Terraform modules we saw this morning using the Terraform operator, then these things can help you to maybe get to the point where your promotion between environments is a version change instead of dozens or hundreds of lines. So that's never fun.  These slides are up on the schedule, so hopefully you can find them easily. If you have any trouble, come find me and let me know. The first article is from a guy at CodeFresh named Costis. It's highly recommend checking out that article.  I wrote an article, it's up on the harness blog. Some links to the Argo and Flux documentation and a recording from Costis from ArgoCon last month is on the last link. Finally, if you're interested in harness at all, here are a few links to what we do and some of our community resources will be on the main floor tomorrow and to the rest of the week. If you want to come find us, find our booth. And with that, I'll say thanks for coming. Thanks for listening and find me after if you have any questions. We do have time for any question, like a question or two, if anyone has any. No master, run to lunch. Thanks for that. It was good. Have you considered using Git submodules? I've never had great experiences with Git submodules. We have been burned in the past, but no, that it certainly could work. I'm thinking of areas, nothing to do with GitOps where we've used submodules and it was challenging. But yeah, I can't see why it wouldn't work. Yep. Thanks everybody. Thanks a lot. Thanks Jim.


Wait you just witnessed... First over at ye and it's I'm Corbin You can follow us on Instagram And on Twitter! Juicy content!  And it's a Marathi trait Sweet! So you guys will be very happy We've done Surat I think it's called Right? We've done a few Namastrat Namastrat It's on the list We want to see it We're in love with that trailer And we're looking forward to getting to that film That's been a highly requested for a long time Had to have somebody sub it because there's no trailer I think it's older But somebody subbed it for it Not Hey Nos but somebody did So that's nice of them If I'm not mistaken Hey Nos does Hindi stuff Yes Hey Nos Which thanks Hey Nos It's all From Northern Anything from the Hindi film industry But This is Marathi so What do you think? It sure is Here we go In a time when motion pictures Have just begun One man's curiosity Caught the better of him I'm in love with this already I'm in love with this already I've been in love with this for 7 years I think it's our thing He faced all the odds To fulfill his dream We're going to go to the hotel We're going to go to the hotel We're going to go to the hotel What's going on?  To bring to his country What people have never seen before Nothing has happened Nothing has happened Everything has happened I'm going to India I want to make a motion picture Can you help? And in doing that He created History I just recently read about this guy He's writing the beginning of a Bollywood book He's writing the beginning of a Bollywood book Oh I want to see this so bad If it was history How would you know The future in motion pictures The pre-commedia In my house of heart proudly present The true story of a genius The father Of Indian cinema Oh that was great Wow Ladies and gentlemen The maker of this movie From India Mr. D.J. Palke I must give many Motion pictures in my country One of the most inspiring stories Of a visionary we've ever told It's official entry To the Academy Awards Harish Chandraji Factory Keep going Did it stop? That's the end? It's the end of our video Sad day I think it was basically over I wanted to hear what the rest of his line was But I want to see this so badly I didn't even know A film had been made about his life yet I've heard about this trailer Especially when we do anything Marathi Marathi yes I don't want to Correct me if I'm wrong Marathi I don't want to miss it What a film is again Call it Bengali Yeah I've heard this Because it's one of the top ones Whenever people talk about Marathi Especially Marathi Yeah It's a good question I would say Marathi Marathi types They are obviously very proud of their cinema And they also say that it's like If you're looking for like Oscar type films They're the kind of ones That make those style of films 100% That's what they say The regional Learning more and more about The regional aspects Of the film industries And the approaches to the film industries We'll talk more about this in the future as well But 100% there are different It's foundational as far as The why they make film It's hugely hugely different In many respects The South Indian industries Versus the Bollywood North Indian Slash Hindi speaking Bengali film They're very diametrically opposed And yes I would say that East and the South 100% focus almost entirely Most of the time On artistry On making something that is of artistic merit And I don't think you said it In the beginning so if you want to Yes I didn't even see it Well maybe not Harishandrachi Harishandrachi Who is considered the father of Indian cinema I need this synopsis for me In 1913 India's cinema industry Is born from Dada Sahab Falki's efforts to make Raja Harishandra which I knew That's yeah the factory that's not his name Is what I just said a moment ago India's first feature length black and white silent film And that was taken right out of the story I had read in regard to He had seen a film depicting the life of Christ and it so Enamored him not just in the Selling of the life of Christ But he immediately translated that As any artist would of Think of all of the stories we have That Indians would want to see depicted on film But we talked about that when we first started Watching historic trailers We're like good grief how many stories Do they have to tell In the history yeah so He's really and sadly Knowing what I know about his life Is that he was the quintessential artist In that we saw in the trailer That he had no money Basically took everything in his life Had an extraordinary wife My understanding who was 100% on board With him in the vision and really Didn't see anything of his legacy Happened in his lifetime But is considered basically the father Of Indian cinema and it came out to him Nine even though it looks older Maybe it's on purpose that it looks older It started with in a time I was like in a time that I Forgot It came out to him nine it looked older I think that would be on purpose though They're trying to make it look like His era was the early 20th century The beginnings of talkies, the silent film That's an extraordinary clip For a 2009 film it was only 96 minutes I thought it was going to be like Three hours It looked so real and so good It almost looked as if they had taken Some documentary footage And there was one shot They were replicating It was probably the most famous photograph Of one of his films And they were restaging it in the In the scene And it was striking the detail It was Spielberg in In the Bollywood book That we got in the mail The detail to content by the director Parish Mokashi looks Spielbergian If I can you make that Because Spielberg is known for being Meticulous in detail with period pieces What producer did you know Ronnie? Ronnie Scruvalla Big big big big name in producing All over the place All over the place Huge name in Indian Somebody from Sacred Games isn't it? Who? Oh no way Pull up the picture Sacred Games First season that's not cuckoo is it? I don't think it's cuckoo No How funny It's Gautande's mom Is it really? That's what it said Gautande's mother I see it now So here's the question How do we get this film with English subs? I don't know But also What border I think I think Because we asked this last time When we were doing the Serrat music video So which one should we watch This one will probably be more entertaining In like An enjoyable film If you want to see great acting, Namastrat Is the one to go for a course That look like it was going to have power house acting Where would this one fall into that I would just out of a sense of obligation To the stupid babies Namastrat we got to do that for them alone However I call Namastrat That's what we call it but I think there's no way They've been begging us to watch that one I couldn't watch it as much as I want to see this I want to see that one more and I would want to do that Just for their sake And as I said Let us know what other Marathi films Yes please, I don't know what other Marathi films There are Unless you guys tell me in the comments And upvote whatever one So I can see that that's what people want And especially if it has subs Because if it doesn't I need to find somebody Who knows Marathi Or whatever language it's in Whatever it's in if it's not Hindi Trust me I want to do regional films People think that Or just like oh you only do Bollywood films Nope that's just what people request First of all people request it And the ease of us getting the content With English subs As well as not having any issues We typically don't with that either The main thing is the ease with which you can get it The number of requests we have for it The popularity of it already on the internet Those are factors that signal to us That this is what people want to see We want to do regional films We have no bias It may be something that isn't really popular On the internet or a lot of requests But if it has artistic merit If it's something that's been an Oscar entry Or it's been something that should have been And it's something that people in the world of the art form That matters the most to us sincerely Just don't give us Student of the year too That should have been the entry for India Every year Every single year Just like Bigby's body double Should have gotten There should be a category created for body doubles Just because of Bigby's body double Featured actor has the body


Alright everyone, let's… everyone. Alright, let's sit down. Today I want to welcome you all to the first meeting of Mobile Task Force Sigma 3. Well, the new Sigma 3. We don't have a nickname yet, but that's not particularly important. We can discuss it later. So as you know from the pre-meeting reading, uh, 500 pages of light reading, this Task Force came about after the incident with the uncontained anomaly known as the library. Mobile Task Force Sigma 3 with the support from Row 2 and Beta 18 attempted to contain it. Well, invade might be a better word. However, yes, Dr. Yee? No, the documents are correct. We don't know precisely when this happened. Foundation documentation, readouts of non-anomalous indicators that correlate with that event, even memories of those directly involved, they're all contradictory and give different times and places for the event. That being said, about 70% of the documentation puts the event in a three-week window in December of last year, with the teams entering from several ways found in the Greater Metro Atlanta area. So we're reasonably sure that that is the time and place. We believe that it has something to do with the nature of the library and the entrance of Sigma 3, Beta 18, and Row 2 into an area called the Archives. But that's mostly conjecture. Anyway, as you no doubt have read, what happened next was, well, it was a clusterf***. The anomaly, it has extensive self-defense mechanisms, which it made use of. We were expecting some pushback, but mostly from the patrons. What we got instead was, well, Row 2 suffered a 100% casualty rate. Beta 18 managed to make it out of the way with two members. Sigma 3 was luckier, making it out of there with five. If those of you who were in the first version of Sigma 3, if you could just raise your hands, then we, no one? All right, well, I suppose that's fair. I don't think I'd want to either. At any rate, we don't think that those listed as MIA have been killed, but rather transformed into servants of the library. So that's nice, I suppose. What? No, there's not much we can do to get them back, at least for the time being. They are fine after a sort. Since then, attempts by Foundation and D-Class personnel to enter known ways has led to either being immediately captured by the library, probably for use as servants, or else walking into a plane of fire or caustic gas or some other nasty thing. So we're discontinuing exploration into the ways, at least for the time being. The thing is that the white paper, the Camel of Memo, about the library being a loaded weapon, it wasn't wrong. The library represents a threat to normalcy. It serves as a base for terrorist groups. It has served as the point of origin for several hugely disruptive anomalous events. We need to deal with it. But our previous attempts, trying to watch from behind bushes and never involving ourselves or getting our hands dirty, that didn't work. You just read 500 pages about how badly it failed. Hell, some of you can say first hand how badly it failed. Which brings me to why we're here. Majority decision by the O5 Council has ruled that Sigma 3 is changing its focus. We are now going to be doing hands-on investigations of anomalous phenomenon. This means interacting with type blues, wizards, shamans, sorcerers. No more of this witch finder's general crap. More deep cover cooperation with Agent Smithson? Yes, yes it does. But the Foundation's mission isn't necessarily black and white. In the best of all worlds, yes, we would maintain an absolute distance between ourselves and the anomalous world. But that's no longer feasible. In the best of all worlds, we wouldn't have to do the horrible shit that we do in name of protecting people. So this is a fairly minor compromise? Think of it this way. Letting smaller stuff slide in order to focus on and coordinate against more significant threats. Like a CI. Or that's confidential informant, I mean. Anyway, some schmuck in Hoboken who moves dish soap with his mind isn't the same level of threat as a death cult trying to summon an elder god. In the past, we've gotten lucky and mostly caught these things before they blew up. But there have been a lot of close calls. Too many. But the thinking is, if we maybe manage to, you know, infiltrate the community via anomalous underground, like they say, we can learn about some of this stuff earlier. Give us time to prep, note threats as they emerge. We can't contain the library, but we can mute its influence, or at least the disruptive stuff. Violent terrorists, dangerous or noticeable anomalies, dark gods, that sort of thing. And if the price for that is letting the dish soap guy go free, then that's fine by me. Yes, press? Oh, uh, no. Not as of yet. For obvious reasons, members of the hand that are in Foundation custody, they're not super excited about the possibility of informing on their comrades in arms. Right now, we're looking at offering a sort of commuted sentence to some of the less dangerous anomalous entities that can offer us connections to lower level people. What? Right, no, I know. Commuted sentence was probably not a good choice of words. Maybe something more like, we'll leave the door open, and if you happen to leave, well then maybe we won't look too hard for it. People calm down, quiet, Jesus, all right. I get that this is a shift, but seriously, we're not releasing anything dangerous here, right? We're talking dish soap guy again. Low level blues, sometimes wondrous from other worlds. People that we don't do any research on, we just lock them up because that's what we feel we should do. People that don't pose any threat to the masquerade, but maybe we're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know that pack rat thing is what we pride ourselves on, but it's not always the most useful mentality. These people can give us an in. We're giving them a second chance. Yes, Agent Johnston.  Really? Great. I'll be sure to pass that upstairs. They'll definitely consider it.  But it's not as though we're going to be going on magical ferry rides or whatever with them. Like I said, we can't use ways anymore, and that's how they get around. What we're doing, though, is trying to work our way into the anomalous community. Think of it as deep cover, all right? What was that, Lee? You need to, uh, you need to speak, yeah? Ah, all right, that's a fair question. There are a few reasons, and it depends on where you're coming from. Some of you were selected because of your, uh, your first hand knowledge of the library, for better or for worse. And those of you on the old Sigma 3, back when it was Witchfinder's General, have probably the most extensive working knowledge of the serpent's hand and its operations of anyone in the foundation. Not directly applicable, but it still has the potential to be useful. As for the rest of you, it depends, like I said. Some of you are trained in research, infiltration, all that fun stuff. Yes, Perez? What? No, sweet Christ, no. Let me be clear here. There is a blazing, huge line between integrating ourselves with the anomalous community and being goddamn wizards. People who can do it naturally are freaks, sometimes useful freaks, but still freaks. The foundation locks them up, or if we find it useful, maybe release them and use them as a contact. We do not employ them, at least intentionally. As for the other stuff, rituals and all that, things where ordinary people can do it, that is acceptable if avoiding it would blow your cover. But we're not going to try to do this stuff on our own for fun. Leave that to the hand and the GOC. We'd be out of our depth very, very quickly.  Are there any other questions? Look, I know that this is a lot to take in, but think of it this way. That uneasy feeling you're having? About wandering into a world you don't even know existed. That's what you felt. Or at least, that's what I felt when you joined the foundation. We're still working for humanity, still preserving the world. Just try to be smart about it. And a file. To learn more about the SCP Foundation, subscribe to SCP Orientation Today, and turn the notification bell on so you don't miss any of our videos.


Hello everybody. My name is Jan Gerlach. I'm a senior public policy manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, which is the non-profit based in San Francisco, California that hosts and operates Wikipedia and other projects of free knowledge. We are meeting here today with Andres Laura and Julio from ISUR, a fellow member organization of the Global Network of Centers who study internet and society. And we're meeting via video feed today because we couldn't meet this year at the global IGF in person. The Network of Centers has established this lovely tradition of meeting in person at several global events, one of them being the IGF. And since we couldn't meet there, we've decided to hold these series of video chats. And I'm so glad today that we can actually still meet like this. And I'm very excited to hear about your work at ISUR. And maybe I'll just start with you, Andres. Could you tell us a little bit about what you do at ISUR, what ISUR actually is and what your work is, and also what you're excited about for the future? Sure. Thank you, Jan, for the invitation. So my name is Andres Lombana-Bernudes. I am a research associate at the ISUR Center. This is the Internet and Society Center for the Universidad del Rosario. In Spanish, it reads as Center de Internet y Sociedad de la Universidad del Rosario. I am also a faculty affiliate at the Vermont Klein Center, and I am very happy to see the ISUR Center grow. As a research associate, I have had the opportunity to work in different projects at this center and help to build it. Also with Julio and other people at the Universidad del Rosario. So in short, the ISUR Center is an interdisciplinary research and training space that focuses on the social challenges and opportunities created by technological transformation. Our focus is mostly on human rights, technological empowerment, and democratization of knowledge and information in Colombia and Latin America. Our center welcomes students and researchers interested in consolidating academic training and advocacy projects that address technological development from a social and human perspective connected to the vision of the global south. By the way, ISUR has the word south in its name, so it's also a kind of a pun, and we emphasize that global south perspective. Very fitting. As I see the future of ISUR, we have many projects and lines of research that my colleagues will address in a moment, but the future that I see for ISUR is a future of creating like this new internet models, business models, new ways of connecting people, particularly people who has difficult conditions, vulnerable populations in the global south, particularly Colombia, where you see like almost half of the population that cannot connect to the internet yet. So we are reimagining other ways of connecting. I think we have to think in local, local scale, not massive, but connecting the local with the global in ways that are more equal, less asymmetrical and powerful. So I see the ISUR having a great kind of intervention in that space. Thank you. That sounds wonderful, especially as you described the situation around connectivity, for instance, that really resonates with me and seems to really make your mission also very, very pressing, right. And I have, of course, heard about your work in different contexts already when we've met before. But I do sort of wonder how you envision this, your work locally being part of a larger network of centers, how you feed your work locally into that more global work that others are doing as well. Is there, is there something that you can share about that? Absolutely. ISUR has that vision, it's shaped by the vision of the network of centers where we started to create it. I was a fellow at the Roman Klein Center, I started conversations with other people who had created other centers also with Julio. And we have several projects that actually articulate the network, right. We see a lot of potential doing this mobilization of resources of human resources, technology and funding. We have a project where we are collaborating with the Nordic Center, for instance, around the future of work and youth and innovation, and also a project on Aplatam that is connected to the network of connect thousands, a network in the south that is looking at youth and learning skills and doing comparison work between countries. I think that's very productive and I think the future of the research on the internet is actually looking at that diversity of appropriation, of diversity of experiences. The only way to be able to understand really how it looks the internet in the different contexts is to have a possibility of comparing different countries and the network of centers. A great resource for that. Wonderful, wonderful. So, so exciting. I really, really like this work and I'm so impressed. Maybe Julio, I can, I can throw it over to you. I've been a long term member and colleague at ISUR and it's so great to see you here today again. Maybe you can talk to us a little bit about what you there what your role is. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation at this space. It's really grateful to see you again. I am a worker in ISUR. ISUR was an idea of Andres four years ago with Sandra Cortesi and Karolina Watero here in Colombia. Andres started to work in this idea, particularly in the impacts of the new technologies in our bodies and in our minds and our relationships. Because in Colombia, in general, there are a root of a technology solution is we want to work in the in this kind of approach of technology about our relationships, the changes in our society. So, you said that the new technologies. You have an agenda of work that I tried to present briefly. We are working in media information literacy, the UNESCO initiative. We are working in media information literacy, and we are working now with indigenous population and women and women in Colombia, particularly is interesting. We are working to work with Wikipedia in indigenous language with some communities in Colombia. We are working to in a democratization of knowledge. We are, we are working, for example, in a credit commons movement. This year we, we work in the organization in Colombia of the Global Congress on intellectual property and public interest. Unfortunately, we, we must to, to postpone to 2021, but we are working in access to knowledge and the problems on intellectual property relations with their relation with access to knowledge. We are working to in open science and open access with university. We are working in the UNESCO initiative of how to think the agenda in access to knowledge and open science. We are working to in, in, in training of judges in Latin America with colleagues with the, the, the celli, Augustina El Campo in Argentina, and the colleagues of Brazil and Mexico. We are working with UNESCO to in, in, in a box of tools in training of judges in a free expression. UNESCO has been present to in, in the Internet Governance Forum, local Colombian Internet Forum and regional LACA-YEF and Global Initiative. And we are working now to in, in, in surveillance and privacy in, in one group in ISUR is working in, in, in these, in these problems. This is a very broad, very broad. Yes, yes. There was four years, very fructive. Yes, yes, yes, very prolific, very, yeah, I'm so impressed. I, of course, working at the Wikimedia Foundation, I'm of course, very, very happy about the work that you've doing on that you've been doing on Indigenous languages. And so around using Wikimedia there. I encourage everybody to read those reports that are public as well. And maybe now to, to the third person for me who are joining us today, Laura, so great to meet you. Can you tell me a little bit, since I've never met you, can you tell me a little bit about what your role is in these projects and in these? Hi, John. Hi, Julio Andres. My name is Laura Palacios. I am research assistant at ISUR. I'm working since July. My first role is try to support the different project that we have. I just want to add something about the things that Andres was speaking about appropriation and digital inclusion strategies. We are working in a collaborative work with communities in the north coast of Colombia, with the community, Guaduan, Senú. The principal work that we are doing is creating a collaborative dialogue so we can provide tools to them in the strategies that they have to prevent the COVID-19. So this is an important work that we are talking about because they don't have just impact in this Colombian community. The last week we can see that also the work that we are doing have an impact in the community, Guadu, but they are in Venezuela. So that's the first thing that Julio is talking about. And also we have the things that we are working with Wikimedia. That is just important for Colombian people and also for the community while doing Venezuela. Wonderful. Laura, maybe it's important it did work with the Red De Comunicaciones del Pueblo. The network of communication of Guadu people. Please. Yes. We have an important. I agree with me. Yes. In Guadira, Colombia, they have different organizations that are part of the Red Comunicaciones. They have different organizations that produce and they also are community. I don't know how to say communicadores. Communicators. Communicators and the thing that is important here, that is the impact that they have in the region. Because they have a lot of 20 organizations of different communities in Colombia, not just Guadu. They have another indigenous community that they have an important work so they can reply the message that we have for them. One thing that was important of this project is related to the, I don't know how to say, empowerment of the rights that we can not just teach to them is work with them. So that is really important for us. Wonderful. So you really, you work all together really what I'm hearing is really spans from actual research, but also applying those things and giving people the tools to to to use their rights across across the country. But also maybe the region right as you've mentioned collaborations with other groups in Latin America. Now I'm wondering, is there a, is there a thing that you, is there a project or a piece of your work that you would like to invite others in the network to join you with I've heard that you already work with the Nordic Center for instance. Are there other things that where you would like to extend an invitation, maybe for 21 for the next year that where you would would appreciate the support maybe also from from other groups in the network of centers could be anything of course. Yeah, perhaps something that we would like to learn more about it is how to create this fellowship programs, because it would be nice to have also a fellowship program at ISUD or residence program. This this kind of connections with the outside world of the university right and bringing people in to the center to develop their projects use it as a platform but also to learn together so I think that there are like several centers in the network that has done that from the Vermont Klein Center of course but also like the Humboldt Center I think there are like many things that we can learn from from those experiences. That is actually an excellent point and I think in conversations with other centers I have heard similar about similar interests like maybe sort of a learning call or something or or how do we set up these fellowships or how do we make them work even across centers right maybe there's maybe there's a lot of potential for interchange between between different centers and and bring in sort of fresh minds from elsewhere. But also of course equipping those minds with knowledge about the local context right. Yeah, wonderful. So, you've said that a lot of a lot of things have sort of been postponed to to the next year unfortunately due to the pandemic. Has has COVID. Of course it has but has it affected your work in ways beyond going remote how big is your center is it decentralized from the very beginning or have you always had one one office where you've worked together. How does this work at Eastwood. We are working in a very decentralized mode because we have a participants in the school from the other faculties. And we are working really in many fronts. For example, we are working in the in the in the European directive of property rights and influence and we are trying to think in the impact in Latin America of the of the role of the intermediate in internet intermediaries. In, for example, a free expression. Because the European directive about intellectual property. Assigned to the intermediaries or the internet one role in the in the field trial of contents in internet in Latin American standards of free expression. This is very problematic then we are working with economist in this in this problem. And in our, our role is very decentralized to see the internet problems, since interdisciplinary approach. Okay, so so the switch to to being remote also wasn't that big of a problem to you I mean it's not great for anybody right but. And through the internet government forum, Columbia internet government forum. We are trying to involve to involve other people from other universities in in Columbia to work in in our problems. Wonderful. And how many people are at Eastwood all together. Maybe 12 people, the core, the core because we have study is that means from the great and graduate studies, we have collaborators. Now we are starting a first experience in the science collaborative in collaborative science with your yeast with your yeast, then yesterday Laura know we have maybe 15 students from international relationships from biology from your student for from law from anthropology interested in this first work on a collaborative science. Then we have people that but the core we are 12 maybe. Very impressive how much you do with with only 12 people. So great. Well I see that we are already a time unfortunately, but it's been so great to hear and learn more about these are. I'm a big fan as you know, and it was so great to meet you all today thank you so much for taking your time. And I will see you soon. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.


If you are working in a corporate environment, chances are you have already worked from home during the COVID lockdown. Even if you have resumed work from the office, you will have to interact with others who work from home. In this video, I will explain how Toastmasters, a non-profit organization committed to developing your communication and leadership skills, help you to be more effective in this new normal that has been thrust upon us due to the onset of COVID pandemic. But first, I would like to thank the leadership team of District 99 for inviting me to create this video. My name is Kajitan Barreto. I create YouTube videos to help Toastmasters navigate the online world on my YouTube channel Tech Photosmasters. My day job is a head of project management office. This gives me great insight into how Toastmasters and work from home go hand in hand. Getting work done using online meetings is part and parcel of our lives now. Two years ago, most of us did not know about Zoom. Today, Zoom is one of the most valuable companies in the world. When it comes to the corporate environment, we may be more accustomed to Microsoft Teams. Microsoft has invested millions to make Teams the tool of choice for online communications in corporate environment. Regardless of the choice of online tools, your communication skills play a key role in getting things done in a team environment. So how does one master communication skills when the only thing between you and the others is a laptop with an internet connection? I have observed over the past two years a very predictable phenomena. When there is a meeting in progress, you will have different stakeholders present in the meeting, top management, middle managers, and the supervisors and technical staff. The top management invariably wants to be seen and be heard. When they speak, they switch on their camera and ensure that their message is understood by all by using facial expressions, tone, and gestures. When it comes to middle management, you will see some communicate with their camera on while some prefer to keep the camera off. The technical and supervisory staff will almost never switch on their video. It is as if they are scared to show their face. They are comfortable throwing a PowerPoint on the screen and let PowerPoint do all the communication. But that is not how communication works. For effective communication, it is important to be seen and be heard. But it is not as easy as it seems. Let's look at some of these technical aspects of effective online communication. In order to be seen and be heard, the first place to start is the camera. Most laptops these days are equipped with decent cameras. If you have one of these newer laptops, that may be all that is needed. In case you have one of the older laptops or if you are using a PC, you have to invest in a decent webcam, such as the popular Logitech CE920. If you have the budget, you can even consider investing in a decent mirrorless camera to give you that extra edge. The new mirrorless cameras come with built-in support for webcams. If you want the highest quality possible, you can consider connecting the camera using a HDMI to USB converter. Once you decide on the camera, the next focus should be on lighting. Cameras work best when there is plenty of available light. When I moved into my new office a year ago, the first thing I did was ask the facilities team to change the position of my desk so that my face is lit from the sunlight streaming through the window. If there is a strong light behind you, for example, if your back is facing the window, then your face will appear dark as the camera tries to adjust the exposure to the available light. This is not good. If you are unable to control the natural light, a simple solution is to place a light source in front of your desk. Easy panels work best since they can output softer and flattering light and do not take up space. Next is the position of your camera. Too often we do not pay enough attention where the camera is placed, which can result in a very unflattering and distracting look. A simple rule of thumb is to place the camera at the same level as your eyes. Perhaps a little above eye level. If you are great at taking selfies, then you know what I am talking about. When you work from home, you are always conscious of using your camera. What is in the background? Are your children running around? Or are your cats fighting? Most of the meeting tools these days fortunately allow you to replace the background either with a blur effect. A blurred background works best when you want the audience to focus on you. The effect relies on the computer identifying your face and replacing the rest of the background with a blur effect. This works best if you have a powerful laptop and good light. You should also pay attention to the clothing. If the color of your dress is the same as the background, the computer will struggle to blur the background correctly. In a similar vein, you can replace the background with an image of your choice. This uses the same technique as blurring. You also need a decent laptop and good light. Virtual backgrounds are a great idea to showcase your company logo, mission, etc. To get the most out of a virtual background, you can consider investing in a green screen. These are relatively cheap. A green screen can convert your small office into a professional looking office with custom background. It gives you a peace of mind to work from home and communicate with your team in confidence without worrying about distractions around the house. As online communication evolved during the pandemic, both Zoom and Microsoft Teams have understood the importance of the speaker while delivering any message. In order to combine a presentation and the camera in the same virtual space, Zoom introduced a new feature called PowerPoint as virtual background. This gives great results as long as you format the PowerPoint to consider the camera within the same frame. The limitation is that it only works for PowerPoint presentations. Using this feature, the speaker can engage the audience while displaying other content on the same screen. Similarly, Microsoft Teams introduced the standout mode. This works similar to Zoom, but it can work for PowerPoint or any window. Microsoft Teams provides different standout modes depending on how you want to present the content. We have the standout mode, which is similar to the Zoom feature. There is also the side by side standout mode. And finally, there is a cool mode called reporter standout mode. You can try the one that works best for you. Microsoft Teams has another online trick up its sleeve when presenting PowerPoint. It's called PowerPoint Live. Though it does not include the camera within the presentation like the standout mode, it does allow you to engage with the audience using interactive tools. Secondly, it gives you a full view of your PowerPoint that makes it easy to navigate to the right slide. Finally, if you really want to take your online presence to a professional level, you can use tools such as OBS Studio, a completely free software to create virtual scenes. It does require a steep learning curve, but the results are definitely worth it. I have discussed in detail how to be seen. In order to effectively convey your message, it is equally important to be heard. In fact, your online audience will forgive you for bad video quality. But if your audio is not clear, they will tune out. Audio is such an important aspect of online communication, you should invest in the best microphone that you can afford. Ideally, you should request your company to provide you with good audio gear as it is an integral part of your work-from-home role. The simple rule of thumb for a microphone is that it should be as close to your mouth as possible. Unless you have a modern laptop that is equipped with noise-canceling microphones, avoid using the laptop microphones as these microphones tend to pick up too much room noise. You will end up sounding something like this and trust me, this is not a good sound to listen to. A good headset is ideal for online communications. However, these days we are spoiled for choices when it comes to microphones.  Finally, invest in a good internet connection, especially if you are connecting to your corporate network through a VPN. Now you are all set to work from home. Now that you have understood the technical setup, the question you may ask is, how does Toastmasters help you in mastering these online communication skills? The answer can be broken into two core parts. First is practice. You don't get many opportunities at work to practice the message that you wish to deliver. Without practice, your message may not be conveyed properly. In Toastmasters, you get opportunities to practice both the technical skills of online meetings as well as effective online communications. Most clubs meet at least two times in a month. Every meeting is an opportunity to deliver a speech in front of a supportive audience. Number two is feedback. We improve by understanding what we can do better. In Toastmasters, your club members give you positive feedback every time you deliver a project. You can incorporate this feedback into your next presentation. You will learn the best ways to communicate online, how to present effectively and finally to feel comfortable with the technology. The Toastmasters education program called Pathways also covers many projects that help you to hone your online skills. For example, how to conduct an online meeting, creating podcasts, speaking to an unfamiliar audience and so on. Go to the Toastmasters website, click on find a club and give them a call. A Toastmaster membership is the best investment for your career.