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

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 highperformance 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 videoconferencing 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 groupto-group collaboration
• Supporting personal communications,
meetings, conferences, and teaching and
learning
• For Internet2 members and their international
counterparts
Data Sharing
Voice/IP
Electronic Notebooks
Peer to Peer
Collaboratories
Others
Videoconferencing
Technologies
The Internet2 Commons
Other Collaborative
Technologies
Instant Messaging
H.323
VRVS
AG
MPEG2
Others
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
http://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. desktopbased, 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
ResearchChannel Consortium
Pioneering new
methods for
distributing live
content

Building channels to
facilitate the
communication and
research of
information

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
http://www.internet2.edu/e2epi
From VIMM to
Internet2 Digital Commons
George Brett
November 29, 2001
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 groupto-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
Any Time
 Video & Audio
Conferencing
 Streaming Video & Audio
 Instant Messaging /
Chat Spaces
 White Board tools
 Shared Applications
(viz, remotes, etc.)
 Peer-to-Peer (Groove)
 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
Any Time
 Video & Audio
Conferencing
 Streaming Video & Audio
 Instant Messaging /
Chat Spaces
 White Board tools
 Shared Applications
(viz, remotes, etc.)
 Peer-to-Peer (Groove)
 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