Announcements

12/19

We have received many superlative and supportive comments about Megaconference IV. More info at http://www.mega-net.net/megaconference.

There were over 200 organizations registered, from all continents of the world. A map showing all participants is on the web site, along with an MCU map.

The decision to go to 768K H.263 was initially controversial, but worked well in the end, and was supported by the comments received.

The video quality was the best ever in a Megaconference. The streaming video has been archived and is available for viewing at two sites.

The Internet2 Commons site, on the Starbak streamer.The Internet2 Virtual Briefing site.

The improved quality is due not just to the higher speed used, but also to the general increase in the state of the art. More people are now experienced at running MCUs. People have better equipment and better network connections and more experience.

The presenters were excellent, from the comments received.

The Game and the Cafe are widely supported.

All those who won prizes of various kinds have claimed their prizes, and they are being sent to them. This year we had some much larger donations that before.

Thanks again to Viewcommunications, Vuports, Tandberg and Polycom!

As always we continue to have the problem of unmuted microphones.

Our MCU operators did a great job behind the scenes of controlling that to the extent possible, but it still exists.

We have devised a scheme whereby each speaker always sees themself, rather than the previous speaker, in an attempt to control this problem. the thought is that if someone sees themself on the screen, they will know that the rest of the world is seeing them, and they will know to mute their microphone. What do you think about that approach?

We are considering running the event for 24 hours next year, to provide equal opportunity throughout the world. We would divide the control responsibilities among 3 locations, one here in the USA as usual, plus another in Europe and another in Asia/Pacific. Each would run for 8 hours. What are your thoughts on that?

Thanks to everyone who participated!

*****

The winner of the Grand Prize Tandberg 1000 videoconferencing station, donated by Tandberg, is University of Maryland Baltimore County - Paul Iwancio

The winner of the Grand Prize Polycom FX with Visual Concert FX, donated by Polycom, is Georgia Southern University - Robby Ambler

The winners of the door prizes are:

Sanyo DVD Player, donated by Viewcommunications - Clemson University, Ken Pruitt

VCON Vigo Pro, donated by David Neuman of Vuports - SURFnet (Netherlands), Bert Andree

Sanyo Digital Camera, donated by Viewcommunications - Univ of Arkansas, Richard Sumpter

Sanyo DVD Player, donated by Viewcommunications - Owens Community College, Toledo, Ohio, Mark Valenti

Sanyo DVD Player, donated by Viewcommunications - Univ of Pittsburgh, Timothy Harrty

Mimio Board, donated by Viewcommunications - North Dakota State Univ, Jim Senechal

VCON Vigo Pro, donated by David Neuman of Vuports - Univ of Missouri - Columbia, Rober Heath

The winner of the Megaconference Game prize, a Polycom FX with the winners choice of

ISDN interface, donated by David Neuman of Vuports, is Adrie Kooijman, Delft University of Technology (Netherlands).

Congratulations to all!

To obtain their prizes, the winners now need to send me their complete shipping address, and the equipment will be shipped directly to them from the vendor.

*****

*****

We have diagnosed and fixed more technical problems among the MCUs, so the video quality should be even better.

There are about 210 organizations registered to participate, from all continents of the world.

Many new things have been and are being added to the web pages. Please look at them.

http://www.mega-net.net/megaconference

12/09
You are invited to view the upcoming Megaconference IV event via streaming video available from several locations.  There are now over 200 organizations around the world registered to participate interactively via H.323. Many presentations related to distance learning will occur throughout the day as well as other events, and it will be educational and entertaining for all. The date is December 10, and will run from 8am to 8pm EST (UTC-5). There will be three sessions during the day, to provide convenient times for participants in all parts of the world. The three sessions will not be repetitive.

See http://www.mega-net.net/megaconference for general information and the detailed program of events (to appear real soon now).

You can view streaming video at these locations:

Internet2 - (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

             http://www.internet2.edu/vb

Ohio State University and Starbak (Columbus, Ohio)
             http://commonsvcg.oar.net/megaconference

CESNET (Czech republic)

             Windows Media Player URL: "mms://195.113.161.99/megaconf"

The presenters slides may be viewed at

              http://www.internet2.edu/vb

11/20
The registration deadline for the Megaconference is Nov 27; don't miss  it! So far we have about 120 organizations registered, and the list is growing fast.

Many outstanding presenters from around the world will be telling you about their projects.

The list of door prizes to be awarded also continues to grow:
Tandberg $9K desktop video system
Sanyo digital camera
Sanyo DVD players (3)
Mimio board
Sony products yet to be finalized
Polycom products yet to be finalized
David Neuman offerings yet to be finalized

The first rehearsal was held Nov 15, and about half of the registrants participated successfully. A network problem was revealed here at Ohio State, which has now been fixed.

The next rehearsal is Nov 26, 7-9 am EST (UTC-5)
The final rehearsal is Dec 3, 8am - 8PM EST (UTC-5)
The Megaconference is Dec 10.

11/19
Reminder, there are two rehearsals left:  Tuesday, November 26 from 7 AM to 9 AM EST (GMT -5) and Tuesday, December 3 from 8 AM to 8 PM EST (GMT -5).  You must attend one of these rehearsals to be given dialing information for the actual December 10 event.

10/25
Megaconference IV will be held Dec 10, 2002. There will be three sessions to accommodate participants in the various time zones around the world. An early session will emphasize Europe and Africa, a mid-day session will emphasize the Western Hemisphere, and a late session will emphasize Asia and the Pacific.  All participants are encouraged to take part in  as many sessions as possible. The exact times will be anounced later on the Megacon email list and the Megaconference website.

 Please forward this announcement to other relevant mailing lists and to individuals who may be interested.

 Everyone in the world with appropriate H.323 equipment (see requirements below) is invited to participate.

 Megaconference IV is organized similarly to the previous Megaconferences, in that there will be a series of live presentations from authors all over the world, all brought to you over the Internet using H.323 video conferencing technology. The focus is on the practical use of H.323 technology for distance learning and for communication with far away places.

The program of speakers is now being organized, and if you wouldlike to make a presentation, please send a paragraph or two to dixon.8@osu.edu describing your proposal. Or if you know someone who might like to make a presentation, please urge them to do so.

Only end users may make presentations (rather than technical support people). We tried very hard to schedule the International Space Station for this year's Megaconference, but we could not make the schedules match. However, NASA has agreed that they WILL make the Space Station available for a special version of the Megaconference on a date yet to be determined some time after Dec 10.  Details will be announced later.

The conference is of course fully interactive, so anyone anywhere may ask questions of any of the speakers. But we ask that you follow proper video conferencing etiquette, as shown on the Megaconference website.

Back by popular demand, the "Megacon Cafe" events will return this year.  At several times during the day there will be open sessions which are open to anyone to about anything, or to take a break, or whatever. This is often a good time to ask more questions of the presenters, and to form new collaborations among people of common interests.

The Roll Call  - also back by popular demand -  will be expanded. Every registered organization will be given about 30 seconds to introduce themselves to the world, tell where they are, show off whatever they wish, sing their school fight song or anything that strikes their imagination.

A number of very nice door prizes have been donated by various vendors, and they will be awarded by random drawings during the roll call events. The Grandest Prize donated so far is a $9000 video conferencing station from Tandberg. Other vendors are encouraged to make donations as well.

All such donations will be listed on the Megaconference web pages and in future announcements.

Megaconference IV will include the first Megaconference "game". It will be run along the lines of the popular game "Where in world is Carmen San Diego?"  Clues and help will be placed around the global network of MCUs, and you will have to find your way to the ultimate destination where the "Evil Doctor X" will be waiting to give a prize to the first arrival.

Details about the game will be come available on the Megaconference website.

Unlike previous Megaconferences, this one will NOT coincide with the Fall Internet2 Member Meeting, so there will be no local audience at any central location. The audience will bedistributed around the world, and can range from one person to a roomfull of people at each participating location.

The full agenda and presentation abstracts will be posted on the Megaconference web site as they develop.

We expect several hundred universities and other organizations around the world will be participating, and we would like your institution to be one of them.

OK OK SO WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MEGACONFERENCE?

1.  You must have an H.323 videoconferencing system, with a hardware codec (examples are Polycom, VCON, Tandberg, Sony etc). You cannot use a software codec (examples are Microsoft Netmeeting, CU-SeeMe etc).The conference will also be streamed simultaneously (details later).

2.  You must have a connection to the Internet of sufficient speed and quality that you can do high quality video conferencing at the speed of 768K bits/sec, using the H.263 video codec. Dial-up modems at 56K will not work.

    Cable modems and DSL may not work at this speed. Campus ethernet connections generally work fine.

     (Note - We will accommodate those who can only run at 384K and with the H.261 codec, by providing a more limited subsidiary conference which is linked to the main conference. The conference will also be streamed. Details later on the website.

3.  You must register to participate as soon as possible on the Megaconference website by. filling out the registration form. There is no cost. All registrants will automatically be subscribed to the Megacon email list (if they are not already) to receive future updates.

4.  You must successfully participate in AT LEAST one of the rehearsals that will be held between now and Megaconference IV.  If you do not, you cannot participate in the Megaconference.You may participate in any or all rehearsals. The rehearsals help you and us to get the equipment and network bugs worked out. You agree in advance that you will not get crabby and complain loudly if things do not work perfectly at first, because you realize this is pushing the state of the art to new heights, and so problems are to be expected.

The dates of the rehearsals are:

      Friday     Nov 15  2:30-4:30 pm EST  (UTC-5)

       Tuesday  Nov 26  7-9 am EST  (UTC-5)

       Tuesday  Dec 3    8am - 8pm EST informal testing (UTC-5)

       Details will be announced later.

5.  You will be assigned to one of the MCUs that will be used in the Megaconference, and given instructions on how to connect to it.The manager of that MCU may contact you to make specific arrangements.

6.  Know how or learn how to be polite in a video conference. Mute your microphone when not talking. Don't blurt in "Can you hear me??" every so often. See the etiquette section on the Megaconference website.

7.  Show up for the Megaconference with all your friends and participate fully and above all, learn a lot while your having a great time!!

            Bob

Because of several conflicts with the original tentative date of Nov 5, the date has now been finalized as December 10.

Registration is now open. Go to www.mega-net.net/megaconference. Click on registration. 

Potential speakers are invited to send proposals to me: dixon.8@osu.edu. Topics of interest are Distance Learning and Far Away Places.

The event will have several sessions at different time periods during the day, to accommodate Asian and European participants at times convenient for them.

There will be the ever-popular Megaconference Cafe open discussion sessions.

There will be Roll Calls of all registrants to give everyone a chance to say hello to the world.

There will be fabulous door prizes given away to lucky winners during the roll calls.

There will be several rehearsals in advance, to check out everything.