2020-03-25 - Virtual Events and other COVID-19 proposals
Given the urgency of the topic in light of the UK-wide 'lockdown', we aimed to finalise approval on all topics on the agenda in the course of the call.
- After discussion about the merits of supporting multiple broadcast platforms, the consensus was to keep
beta:virtualLocationas a singular not array, as multiple broadcast platforms are likely an edgecase in this sector. We agreed to re-evaluate this before moving the property out of beta.
- Use
OnDemandEvent, to easily make use of all the existing properties of Events. - Use
workFeaturedto embed any video or other media (e.g. aVideoObject)
- There was a proposal that this should be triple-valued (roughly
required,optional,none) - to account for events where equipment is optional (an alternative is provided for those without). Consensus was that context would indicate the meaning of the attribute, with additional guidance being provided inattendeeInstructionsif required.
- Use
beta:isInteractivityPreferredboolean for now, as interaction being strictly “Required” is probably an edge case attendeeInstructionshould be used to provide further detail if required.
- No changes
- This has the potential to create a large amount of complexity and confusion, especially given the
maximumAttendeeCapacityproperty still exists and is used widely, andremainingAttendeeCapacityis used heavily by the Open Booking API. - For now just add
beta:maximumVirtualAttendeeCapacitytoVirtualLocation, so as not confuse any logic around booking (keeping booking separate for now, and readdressing this with any additions to Open Booking API to handle virtual classes in future) - Note that this is the capacity of the specific
VirtualLocation(e.g. that specific Zoom room), not the entire event.
- Add a new property
beta:affiliatedLocationwas proposed for the original locations of an online-only event, to ensure that the existing data users’ implementations would be intentionally broken by the lack of alocationfield in all cases, and hence they would not misrepresent virtual classes as physical ones. - This replaces the need for
EventMovedOnline, which can therefore be removed. - Hence, for virtual events where
eventAttendanceModeis set tohttps://schema.org/OnlineEventAttendanceMode,locationMUST NOT be included.
- Put
beta:maximumVirtualAttendeeCapacityintoVirtualLocationas a beta field, but keep this RECOMMENDED - Offer is required either in
SessionSeriesor inScheduledSessionupdate to match current spec beta:affiliatedLocationis RECOMMENDEDworkFeaturedis RECOMMENDED
- Standardise only the string “
Beginner” for now, as a short term solution to save trying to solve the larger levels problem.