1. Chris Moffatt Lead Program Manager Learning Sciences & Technology Microsoft Research chrismof@microsoft.com Project Overview

2. Objectives Build ConferenceXP Research Platform Infrastructure for real-time collaboration Core emphasis on high quality, low latency video Use standard protocols and data formats and publish APIs Partner with Universities to: Design and build prototype learning applications that leverage the ConferenceXP platform Perform classroom and distance trials to assess effectiveness and outcomes of technology Establish a user-community of developers and implementers

3. Improve the in classroom experience Learning Experience Project Enabling three Scenarios

4. Enable effective Distance education Learning Experience Project Enabling three Scenarios

5. Add asynchronous capabilities to the classroom Learning Experience Project Enabling three Scenarios

6. Guiding Scenario Deliver a 5-way graduate level CS class between TAB Universities and MSR UW, Brown, CMU, Berkeley, MSR Milestones 5-way TAB Call (Personal Nodes) Successful 2-way distance learning course UW Professional Masters Course

7. Research Platform and Prototype Applications Conference API Rtp API LearningXP Services Professor Experience UW Student Experience Brown New Projects UCB - LiveNotes UCSD - Active Campus UCDavis - Smart Classroom USC/ISI – (Rtp) UCSC - Workflow

8. System Components Facilitate lecturing – scrollable overlays, integrated whiteboard, attention indicators Presenter (UW)

9. System Components ConferenceXP Client (MSR) Enable distance learning – immersive and interactive discussion enabled by high quality, low latency audio and video

10. System Components ReMarkableTexts (Brown) Facilitate ad-hoc, small group learning – note taking, collaborative review, context-sensitive playback

11. System Components Archive Service – synchronized streaming of audio, video, ink strokes, and document navigation into SQL Server 2000

12. System Components Class Portal Windows Sharepoint Services Template – supports asynchronous activities

13. System Components Student device On demand playback; Integration of sync & async activities

14. System Components

15. ConferenceXP Architecture Conference XP User Interface Custom UI Conference API Custom Capability Viewer Capability Sender Rtp API RTDocuments Capability Viewer Capability Sender RTDocuments API RTDocuments UI Audio / Video Capability Viewer Capability Sender DirectShow Audio / Video UI IETF 1889 RFP Protocol Multicast & Unicast UDP/IP ConferenceXP Services Reflector / GatewayArchive / PlaybackDiagnosticsVenue

16. ConferenceXP Client Utilizes Windows Media High Quality Audio & Video Codec's, DirectShow, and a custom low latency networking stack (RTP). The ConferenceXP UI is a sample UI. Conference API allows different skins to be easily created. (e.g. launch ConferenceXP from Messenger) The conferencing architecture supports: Full screen video at 30 fps, with 250 ms latency FireWire cameras to enable high quality, efficient video capture Five way conferencing < 2 Mb/s

17. Network Components A key design decision of ConferenceXP was to utilize Internet2 and multicast to deliver high quality and low latency streaming video Real Time Protocol (RTP) A peer to peer network transport that handles stream and message data. Designed for scenarios where latency is more important than guaranteed delivery. Network Diagnostics A utility called PipeCleaner provides the ability to monitor, log and diagnose multicast network problems. Unicast Bridge Enables retransmission of multicast signals over unicast. Designed primarily for use as a backup to multicast

18. ConferenceXP Services Venue Service Provides the services necessary to create and manage collaboration and learning venues Venue Service interfaces are exposed as Web Services Archive Service (not yet released) Enables the recording and playback of lectures and conferences. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is used as the archival platform Exposed as a.NET TCP remoting server, supporting direct access for clients during playback to enable fast-forward, pause, rewind etc.

19. Questions?