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BGonline.org Forums
Transcriptions
Posted By: Perry In Response To: Transcriptions (Bill Riles)
Date: Monday, 4 March 2013, at 2:19 p.m.
I am delighted you weighed in on this subject as your view suggested to me that I need to present the USBGF side so you and others better understand the course we have embarked on:
1. Our community has made it loud and clear that streaming and match transcriptions are important sources of enjoyment and study.
2. Streaming and match transcriptions historically have been ‘hit and miss’ depending on volunteers. Important ABT semis and finals, as well as matches between leading experts have gone un-streamed because of lack of volunteers.
3. We have spoken to a number of directors about why no streaming was planned at their tournament through their auspices. The answer was a combination of no camera, staff doesn’t have enough time, it would be adding additional work to staff for no additional compensation, and the streaming would require an internet connection fee to the hotel.
4. We decided to offer director’s financial support, and or designated personnel to do the streaming, along with the equipment. The extent of the support is determined on a case by case basis depending on the size and importance of the event and the individual organizer requirement’s. In some instances we pay for all streaming expenses. In others we pay part of the streaming expenses.
5. If a full complement of streaming is done for every day of the tournament, flying in a person to do it, our cost could run as much as $500-$1000. It could also run considerably less under some circumstances.
6. Running such a program is also a time consuming task for the USBGF staff. We need to contact and make arrangements with directors, when the director does not provide a person for this chore we try to locate personnel as close to the tournament city as possible to save time and transportation costs, then we need to monitor what is happening and help with glitches.
7. This program is financed by membership funds. We always hesitate to give to non-members services that members pay for through their membership dues and contributions. At this stage, we feel that providing streaming to non-members in addition to members is justified as a service to the community and we are doing just that. Transcribing the videos into XG and then posting them on or site are tasks that take considerable time. Maintaining a library of these matches is also a service we provide. The funds to support all this comes from members and it is not insignificant, given our budget. We believe if you want to take advantage of these additional services you should become a member if you are not. We believe the majority of our memberships support this point of view. We have no objection to others using any ‘public domain’ streaming to transcribe matches and offer these to the public.
8. As I understand it, The Texas Backgammon Championships is an exception to the rule. You do not want or need USBGF financial support but will be offering extensive streaming in addition to the Duel event. We applaud you that being the case. We would be thrilled if all directors could take your course so we could put our member funds to use elsewhere and reduce our investment to just maintaining a library.
Perry Gartner
President, USBGF
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