The OHBM Time Machine: A freely accessible archive of annual meeting
Presented During:
Wednesday, June 25, 2025: 5:45 PM - 7:00 PM
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Room:
M4 (Mezzanine Level)
Poster No:
589
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Alfie Wearn1, Kevin Sitek2, Sofie Valk3, Stephanie Forkel4
Institutions:
1Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, Quebec, 2Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 3Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Saxony, 4Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Nijmegen, Gelderland
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Since 1997, the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Annual Meeting has provided a critical platform for sharing the latest developments in brain mapping. For over a decade OHBM has recorded presentations and made them accessible to its members through the OnDemand platform. However, limiting access to cutting-edge scientific content solely to paying members contradicts the longstanding ethos of OHBM, which has championed open science principles and practices for many years. Here, we introduce the OHBM Time Machine, a collaborative initiative undertaken by the Program, Education and Communications Committees of OHBM. The project seeks to create a free and permanent archive of all recorded Annual Meeting content, accessible to members and non-members alike.
Methods:
Given the quantity of videos to be uploaded, pipelines were developed to enable semi-automated uploading of videos to YouTube in bulk.
Gathering video data: To facilitate efficient uploading, we created a spreadsheet containing relevant metainformation as well as the video URL to its present storage location (OnDemand, Dropbox, etc.). To create this spreadsheet we developed a script using Selenium, a web automation tool, to systematically extract video URLs and speaker and session information from the OnDemand/Dropbox platform.
Uploading videos: Videos were uploaded using a custom Python script (v3.9.18) that interfaced with the YouTube Application Programming Interface (API). Google provides a template script and detailed instructions for uploading videos via the YouTube API, but for this project, we utilized an updated script compatible with Python 3+ (Razmadze, Accessed 2024/10/27).
Gathering video data: To facilitate efficient uploading, we created a spreadsheet containing relevant metainformation as well as the video URL to its present storage location (OnDemand, Dropbox, etc.). To create this spreadsheet we developed a script using Selenium, a web automation tool, to systematically extract video URLs and speaker and session information from the OnDemand/Dropbox platform.
Uploading videos: Videos were uploaded using a custom Python script (v3.9.18) that interfaced with the YouTube Application Programming Interface (API). Google provides a template script and detailed instructions for uploading videos via the YouTube API, but for this project, we utilized an updated script compatible with Python 3+ (Razmadze, Accessed 2024/10/27).
Results:
As of November 2024, the OHBM YouTube channel has over 2350 subscribers and has amassed over 100,000 views across 1136 videos. 912 videos are from the Time Machine project from the 2022-2024 annual meetings, with older annual meeting content to be uploaded in 2025.
Content from 2022, 2023 and 2024 have 24, 46 and 34 mean views per video, respectively. Numbers of videos and views per year are displayed in Figure 1A and 1B, respectively. Of these years, only 2022's content was uploaded to OnDemand and can serve as a direct comparison point between the two platforms. 2022's annual meeting content on the OnDemand platform reached 8.1 user visits per uploaded video, one third that of the YouTube content, despite content only being available on YouTube for a few months versus the 2 years on OnDemand.
Between December 1st 2023, and November 29th 2024, the channel received 58,983 views. 20.4% of these were from the US, 10.5% from India, 2.6% from Canada. The views from the top 5 countries are shown over time in Figure 2A. A clear peak and increased baseline of views is visible following the upload of Time Machine content.
51.0% of viewers in the same timeframe were aged 25–34. 23.1% of viewers were aged 35–44 and 11.3% were aged 18–24 (Figure 2B).
73.9% of our viewership on YouTube were male, with 26.0% of views from female viewers (Figure 2C).
Content from 2022, 2023 and 2024 have 24, 46 and 34 mean views per video, respectively. Numbers of videos and views per year are displayed in Figure 1A and 1B, respectively. Of these years, only 2022's content was uploaded to OnDemand and can serve as a direct comparison point between the two platforms. 2022's annual meeting content on the OnDemand platform reached 8.1 user visits per uploaded video, one third that of the YouTube content, despite content only being available on YouTube for a few months versus the 2 years on OnDemand.
Between December 1st 2023, and November 29th 2024, the channel received 58,983 views. 20.4% of these were from the US, 10.5% from India, 2.6% from Canada. The views from the top 5 countries are shown over time in Figure 2A. A clear peak and increased baseline of views is visible following the upload of Time Machine content.
51.0% of viewers in the same timeframe were aged 25–34. 23.1% of viewers were aged 35–44 and 11.3% were aged 18–24 (Figure 2B).
73.9% of our viewership on YouTube were male, with 26.0% of views from female viewers (Figure 2C).
Conclusions:
Our vision is for the OHBM YouTube channel to become a singular location for year-round OHBM-relevant content that is as informative, accessible, and comprehensive as possible. The hosting of an archive of annual meeting content will be useful not only to all OHBM members but also to broader members of the scientific community and the general public. It will provide an unprecedented curated educational resource and a permanent track record of scientific development and the evolution of talking points in brain mapping. We hope that by setting up these pipelines and providing an archive of past content – while acknowledging that the organization must remain flexible in the face of changing technologies and social media landscapes – the precedent and workflows have been established to facilitate the continuation of this project effectively ad infinitum.
Education, History and Social Aspects of Brain Imaging:
Education, History and Social Aspects of Brain Imaging 1
Neuroinformatics and Data Sharing:
Databasing and Data Sharing
Workflows 2
Keywords:
Open Data
Workflows
1|2Indicates the priority used for review