Hi Anil, I have to disagree with the idea that "something is better than nothing". In my view, quality matters, and creating educational videos is not a mandatory activity for the project. If we currently do not have contributors with sufficient content creation skills, I think it is perfectly acceptable for the project not to publish official videos until we do.
I also hope we can reach a shared understanding of the minimum quality standards expected for the project's official deliverables, regardless of their form. That said, I am absolutely in favor of encouraging engineers to experiment with content creation and develop those skills. My suggestion would simply be to have those videos published from personal accounts or channels, and then shared with the community via the mailing list or perhaps a wiki page collecting community-created content. I don't think this would discourage contributors; on the contrary, it would give them the opportunity to experiment, receive feedback, and improve their skills without making every attempt an official project publication. To me there is an important distinction between sharing content within the community and publishing content as the Apache OFBiz project. The latter represents the project itself and therefore deserves a higher level of review and quality. As another example of why I believe official communications deserve review, I am also uncomfortable with the official reply posted under one of the videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ByUvnGx5ws&t=26s), where the project appears to promote paid services from a third-party vendor. I think this illustrates that review should apply not only to the videos themselves, but more generally to content published through the project's official communication channels. Best regards, Jacopo On Sat, Jul 4, 2026 at 7:40 AM Anil Patel <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Jacopo, > > Thank you for raising this topic. I agree that as our official YouTube > channel becomes a key resource for the community, maintaining a > professional presentation is important for the project's public image. > > However, I have a slightly different perspective on the path to achieving > that quality. > > We currently see very limited contributions in terms of tutorials and > community content, and I am concerned that imposing strict production > standards at this stage might inadvertently stifle the few contributors we > do have. Many of our contributors are engineers, not content creators or > videographers, and expecting them to be both often leads to no contribution > at all. I believe that right now, "something is better than nothing." > > Before we codify formal standards or guidelines, I think our priority > should be enablement: > > 1. *Building a Toolkit:* We should focus on creating a simple, > "lightweight" toolkit—templates, basic editing guides, and software > recommendations—that makes it easy for a developer to produce decent > content without needing invent a process. > 2. *Leading by Example:* We need to identify 10 solid examples of videos > published in the last few years that we consider "good." These can serve as > the benchmarks for future contributors to follow, rather than relying on a > rigid rulebook. > > Until we have such a toolkit and a more active pool of motivated > contributors, I would prefer we avoid implementing formal best practices or > standards that discourage eager contributors trying new things. Let’s focus > on making it easier for people to contribute and encourage them to do their > best to help the community. > > I look forward to seeing how the community wants to approach this, and I am > happy to support a collaborative effort to define these kinds of resources. > > Best regards, > > Anil > > > > On Fri, Jul 3, 2026 at 12:28 AM Jacopo Cappellato < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > Dear all, > > > > I would like to open a discussion about the content that is published > > on the official Apache OFBiz YouTube channel. > > > > Some of the recently published videos contain useful technical > > information and can certainly benefit users and developers. However, I > > believe that content published through the project's official > > communication channels should also meet a certain standard in terms of > > presentation quality. This includes aspects such as audio clarity, > > video quality, readability of the recorded screen, and the overall > > structure of the presentation. The official Apache OFBiz channel > > represents the project to the broader public, including potential > > users, contributors, and organizations evaluating OFBiz. The quality > > of the material published there contributes to the overall perception > > of the project. > > > > I am not suggesting creating unnecessary bureaucracy or discouraging > > anyone from producing content. Rather, I believe a collaborative > > review process would help us publish material that best represents the > > project while also giving authors constructive feedback before their > > work becomes part of the project's official communications. > > > > I would be interested in hearing the community's thoughts, as well as > > any ideas for defining practical and lightweight guidelines. > > > > Best regards, > > Jacopo > >
