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

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

Th

e Intern

et2 Com

mon

s

H.323

Oth

er Collab

orative T

echn

ologies

VRVS

Vid

eoconferen

cing

Tech

nologies

AG

MPEG2

Others

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 CERNhttp://www.vrvs.org/

VRVS

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

Access Grid

www.accessgrid.org

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

http://www.researchchannel.com/

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, 2001

http://www.internet2.edu/e2epi

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 collaborationBulletin BoardsCalendar and schedulingCollaboration toolsConferencing and Virtual OfficeDistance learning (education and training) Internet PresentationsWhiteboardsCollaboration 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?

www.internet2.edu

www.internet2.edu