VIMM Follow-On Opportunities and Plans Ted Hanss 29 November 2001

Challenge and Opportunity  A virtual meeting created an opportunity to: Use and experiment with video technologies Showcase the capabilities of high- performance networking Work together with our member community to make it all happen

Virtual Member Meeting

Plenary Viewing Options  Real Streams at 128K, 256K, 512K  IP/TV  H.323 Multipoint Control Units (MCUs)  VRVS  Access Grid  Research Channel (cable, satellite and Windows Media stream)  Genesys audio-only conference call

Track Session Viewing Options  H.323 Multipoint Control Units (MCUs)  Real streams  Genesys audio-only conference call  VRVS and Access Grid (for some sessions)

Debrief Information  Statistics  User comments  Technical team assessment

Statistics  Over 90 individuals presented  Out of 36 planned track sessions for Austin, 22 were presented virtually  Some sessions had higher attendance than similar sessions at in-person meetings  We received 7,494 unique visitors to the VIMM website  105 respondents to our survey, normally we get around 30

Positive User Feedback  “Being able to attend without leaving my office.”  “People who weren’t planning to travel to Austin were able to participate.”  “Being able to hop between sessions or view multiple sessions simultaneously.”  “Having archived streams so I can see the sessions I missed.”

Positive User Feedback, cont.  “The VIMM demonstrated that using video- conferencing technologies to share critical information can be done.”

Negative User Feedback  No way to have a virtual glass of scotch with colleagues.”  “Interruptions/distractions resulting from normal office demands.”  “Please don’t do this again. Anyone who expects that users will sit and watch TV for multiple days as a replacement for a real conference is out of their minds.”

Technical Debrief  Consensus that overall it went well  Some network problems  Audio problems  Inconsistency in quality of presenters  No floor control for Q&A  Difficulty in measuring audience  TV and netcasting are different, doing both simultaneously is hard

Technical Help  Bob Dixon of Ohio State University, Tyler Johnson of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Doug Pearson of Indiana University, for MCU and streaming support  Alan Crosswell of Columbia University for help with testing the IP/TV stream  Greg Goddard of University of Florida for running our Access Grid node  Philippe Galvez of CERN for providing VRVS support

Help, cont.  Charlie Marks of University of Michigan for providing Real Stream support  Michael Wellings of University of Washington for being the floor director during the VIMM plenary  Kathleen McMonigal of University of Washington for providing MediaPlayer and Real Streams from the ResearchChannel, and for rebroadcasting the plenary after the live transmission had concluded

What’s Next?  Use the VIMM as a model for other events.  Monthly virtual meetings will continue on various topics (initially, Middleware).  Alternate virtual and in-person meetings.  The Commons will offer a suite of services that will allow Internet2 community to host their own virtual meetings.  Best practices and VIMM Cookbook will be published.

Internet2 Commons

The Internet2 Commons  An effort to encourage and support large-scale, distributed collaboration for the research and education community  A vision: Enabling one-to-one, one-to-group, and group- to-group collaboration Supporting personal communications, meetings, conferences, and teaching and learning For Internet2 members and their international counterparts

The Internet2 Commons H.323 Other Collaborative Technologies VRVS Videoconferencing Technologies AG MPEG2 Others Data Sharing Instant Messaging Voice/IP Electronic Notebooks Peer to Peer Collaboratories

A Problem to Solve  As a community we use several, mostly incompatible, videoconferencing technologies H.323 Access Grid VRVS (Virtual Room Videoconferencing System) MPEG1 & 2 DV over Firewire HDTV …

Virtual Rooms Videoconferencing System Caltech and CERN

VRVS Web-based, worldwide video-conferencing service and collaborative environment

Access Grid

Approach  Share information about recommended uses Decision tree: room-based vs. desktop- based, video quality levels, multicast vs. unicast, …  Point people to current implementations  Facilitate development and deployment projects

Challenges  Funding models  Hitting the right balance of offering stable technologies that work and continuing the exploration efforts  Authentication, authorization, and privacy services (VidMid work areas)  User interface issues  Finding more content

User Interface Issues  What should the Commons “front door” look like?

ResearchChannel  Pioneering new methods for distributing live content  Building channels to facilitate the communication and research of information ResearchChannel Consortium

An opportunity  Partner with the ResearchChannel to get more content, e.g., by getting academic conferences to use Commons technology in their meetings

From VIMM to Internet2 Digital Commons George Brett November 29,

The Internet2 Commons  An effort to encourage and support large-scale, distributed collaboration for the research and education community  A vision: Enabling one-to-one, one-to-group, and group- to-group collaboration Supporting personal communications, meetings, conferences, and teaching and learning For Internet2 members and their international counterparts

A Collaboration Check List  Video Conferencing  Document collaboration  Bulletin Boards  Calendar and scheduling  Collaboration tools  Conferencing and Virtual Office  Distance learning (education and training)  Internet Presentations  Whiteboards  Collaboration servers  File and document sharing (web-based) --- found on the web…somewhere

Collaboration Stuff Real Time  Video & Audio Conferencing  Instant Messaging / Chat Spaces  White Board tools  Shared Applications (viz, remotes, etc.)  Peer-to-Peer (Groove) Any Time  Streaming Video & Audio  Threaded Conferences  Graphical tools (White Board & more)  Guided Tours / Replay of Applications  Peer-to-Peer (Groove)

Access Grid

VRVS

SPARC

CAVE

Collaboration Stuff Real Time  Video & Audio Conferencing  Instant Messaging / Chat Spaces  White Board tools  Shared Applications (viz, remotes, etc.)  Peer-to-Peer (Groove) Any Time  Streaming Video & Audio  Threaded Conferences  Graphical tools (White Board & more)  Guided Tours / Replay of Applications  Peer-to-Peer (Groove)

Corporate Memory: a big question

Smaller Questions  How do people work in small teams or in research lab or in classroom?  How can we work to ensure collaboration is Any Time as well as Real Time?  How to we plan for the long term as well as the immediate or short term?  How can we get the most bang for the buck?  Who can we engage to partner in this activity/research project?