Hi, some time ago I proposed an experiment associated with moderation in the presence of both remote and local participants (point 2.7 below):
http://ietf83.conf.meetecho.com/index.php/UMPIRE_Project You can find the related IETF mail announcement here: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/vmeet/current/msg00394.html Just for the logs. Cheers, Simon Il giorno 05/feb/2013, alle ore 17:04, IETF Chair ha scritto: > Please see the attached report on the current status of remote participation > in the IETF meeting. Please notice at the end a call for potential > experiments to explore ways that we can improve remote participation. > > Russ Housley > IETF Chair > > Bob Hinden > IAOC Chair > > > = = = = = = = = = > > > Status of Remote Participation Services in the IETF Today > > Russ Housley > 1 February 2013 > > 1. Introduction > > For more than a decade, the IETF has tried to make it easier for > remote attendees to participate in regular and interim face-to-face > meetings. At the same time, some IETF Working Groups (WGs) have > started to conduct virtual interim meetings. > > The IETF's current remote participation system ("RPS") consists of a > outbound real-time audio stream for each session carried to remote > attendees over HTTP, textual multi-user chat carried over XMPP > (commonly called Jabber), and posting of slides prior to the WG > session so that they can be downloaded from the IETF web site. > > WebEx and Meetecho are experimentally supported, offering outbound > real-time audio stream synchronized to the slides for the remote > participant. Meetecho displays the Jabber Room on the screen with > slides, and it can also be used to replay the audio and slides from > a recording. > > Some WGs also employ ad-hoc tools, such as Skype for two-way audio and > video conferencing and Etherpad for shared document editing. > > 2. Regular and Interim IETF Meetings > > Today, it is easy to remotely observe IETF sessions, but it is very > difficult to participate in discussions. However, several tools are > used to accommodate remote participants. To the greatest extent > possible, these tools rely on IETF or other open standards, and they > embrace both IPv4 and IPv6 without network address translation. > > 2.1. Audio > > Anyone can use a web browser to receive real-time audio of the IETF > meeting sessions. The URLs for the audio are announced in advance, > and the audio recording becomes part of the session proceedings. > > It is quite difficult for a remote participant to have their voice > heard in the session. The WebEx and Meetecho systems can accommodate > this with advance setup and testing. However, allowing arbitrary > remote participants to speak does not work well. Connecting to the > audio system in the meeting facility is quite problematic. Further, > a WG Chair would need sophisticated controls to maintain order if > arbitrary remote participants were able to speak at any time. > While WebEx and Meetecho provide some participation management > features, but integration with in-room participation is needed. > > 2.2. Video > > In the 1990s as part of the multicast experiment, multicast video was > made available, but this experiment has ended without evolving into a > production service. > > As part of a separate experiment, some sessions use Meetecho to make > video available to anyone with a web browser. WG Chairs must request > this coverage. When Meetecho is used, the URLs are announced in > advance, and the recording becomes part of the session proceedings. > > 2.3. Multi-User Chat > > Multi-user chat (MUC) is used both as a remote participation tool as > well as a communication tool for local attendees, to raise and resolve > issues without intruding on the presentation. Each WG has a Jabber > Room for Multi-User Chat, which employs the XMPP Standards Foundation > (XSF) XEP-045 specification. These Jabber Rooms can can be used at > any time, not just during the IETF meetings. During the session, > remote participants that are listening to the audio are able to ask > questions by typing them in the Jabber Room, and then someone in the > physical room reads the question at the mic. This is called > MUC-to-Mic Relay. The Jabber Room log becomes part of the session > proceedings. > > 2.4. Slide Sharing > > Anyone can use a web browser to fetch the session slides. WG Chairs > are responsible for posting the slides prior to the session, and the > slides (in PDF format) become part of the session proceedings. > > When Meetecho is used, the audio or video is presented in a > synchronized fashion along with the jabber room and slides. > > 2.5. Remote Presenter > > When a presenter cannot attend, someone else usually presents their > slides. Some WG Chairs have tried remote presentations using WebEx > and Meetecho. Neither system is ideal, and the audio can include > squeals and echos. Both systems require advance setup and testing. > > The projection of the remote presenter's face as well as their slides > seems to improve the experience for the people in the room, but we > have only done this successfully a few times. An extra projector and > screen are needed for this to work well. > > 2.6. Shared Text Document Editing > > In some sessions, there is an attempt to edit a text document with > input from the local and remote attendees. This is most often done > for minutes and proposed WG charter changes. Etherpad is the most > popular tool for this purpose. There has been no attempt to > standardize the tools or protocols used for this function. > > 2.7. Participant Management > > A typical meeting discussion takes place by people that want to speak > forming a line at the microphone, and the presenter replies to each > person in turn. However, sometimes someone will jump the queue to > contribute to a particular discussion point. This mechanism does not > provide a natural means for including remote participants. WebEx and > Meetecho do have a feature for noting a request to speak, but this > is not visible to in-room participants. Hence the burden of managing > remote participation falls to the WG Chair or their designee. > > 3. Virtual WG Meeting and Leadership Teleconferences > > For a virtual meeting, all participants are remote; there is no > physical meeting room. A virtual WG meeting is usually held to tackle > a very small number of open issues. Hence, all of the remote > participation tools must be interactive, permitting any participant to > contribute. The primary tool for these meetings is WebEx, in a > conference-call mode, with no queuing of speakers. The WG Chair's > ability to manage discussion becomes challenging as the size of the > virtual meeting grows. > > The teleconferences held by bodies like the IESG, IAOC, and IAB are > somewhat like an virtual WG meeting, except they are held more often > and size of the meeting is constrained. The fact that all > participants know each other facilitates the use of a more informal > process than is typically possible for an open virtual WG meeting. > Again, all of the participants are remote. > > 3.1. Audio > > For virtual WG meeting, access is open, as for regular IETF meetings. > For leadership teleconferences, access is limited to those who are > invited. In recent years, WebEx has been used. WebEx supports > telephone dial-in as well as VoIP for the audio, although it may not > be totally aligned with the IETF standards in this area. Skype and > similar systems can be used to dial into WebEx. Sometimes issues with > an echo take time to resolve, but the quality is generally quite good. > > 3.2. Video > > So far, there has been no need for video. When someone accidentally > turns on the WebEx video, they are asked to turn it off so that > bandwidth is available for quality audio. > > 3.3. Multi-User Chat > > A jabber room or the WebEx built-in chat is used among the > participants. The scribes often find this useful for capturing > accurate minutes. > > 3.4. Slide Sharing > > Slides are often sent by email in advance of the meeting. > > WebEx allows the slides and desktop applications to be viewed by the > remote participants. These are controlled by the presenter. The > presenter can be shifted from participant to participant as needed. > > 3.5. Remote Presenter > > WebEx allows the slides to be controlled by the presenter. > > 3.6. Shared Text Document Editing > > Some scribes use Etherpad for minutes. This allows participants to > review and even correct the minutes as the meeting takes place. > > 4. Improvements > > The IETF has always used the Internet to do its work, and remote > participation is no exception. The IETF wants to improve the tools > provided in the RPS tools; a better RPS would allow remote IETF > attendees to participate more effectively. > > The IETF is seeking improvements that allow remote participants to > more naturally contribute to in-room discussion and allow meeting > management to integrate local and remote participants into a common > queue. > > RPS technologies are not yet mature enough to create a production > service for the IETF, but these technologies are developing rapidly. > The IETF will be conducting more experiments in order to achieve > these improvements as early as possible. To this end, the IAOC is > soliciting suggestions for experiments. If you have suggestions for > experiments, please tell the IAOC: > > (1) What hardware and software is needed? > (2) What people resources are needed in the meeting? > (3) What are the expected benefits to the IETF participants? > > _\\|//_ ( O-O ) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o00~~(_)~~00o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Simon Pietro Romano Universita' di Napoli Federico II Computer Engineering Department Phone: +39 081 7683823 -- Fax: +39 081 7683816 e-mail: sprom...@unina.it <<Molti mi dicono che lo scoraggiamento Ë l'alibi degli idioti. Ci rifletto un istante; e mi scoraggio>>. Magritte. oooO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~( )~~~ Oooo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \ ( ( ) \_) ) / (_/
