[n_america] Re: Re: European / North American WSIS CS meeting, Berlin, 13 June

Tue Apr 20 23:24:06 BST 2004

Thanks all.

I think that I am caught up now (and am trying to incorporate as many 
of the previous posts into this one.  I've also kept the message thread 
below for context, sorry if it is too long.).  My apologies for the 
delay (and Robert and I should probably talk about this further when we 
both get a chance).  It has been a horrendously busy period as we wrap 
up the semester, and I held the Final Forum for our Globalization 
Seminar today.  Thanks to some of you who attended, or tried to attend, 
but found it full.

Yes, this sounds like a great opportunity and we would be delighted to 
discuss how we might use some of our collaboration tools to support 
this virtual meeting.  We have a couple of tools that could help to 
webcast the meeting between the two places, and would allow for very 
robust participation by people that were not physically present at 
either location.  These tools would provide voice over IP, video over 
IP, PowerPoint slides, websites, and pretty much any other digital 
media that you might want to use.

The tool that is easiest to use is unfortunately for Windows only (or 
Mac users running virtual PC).  With this tool, we could also record 
the session for future playback (saved in many different formats) by 
folks that missed the meeting.  We have another tool that we have just 
started working with, that has a native Mac client ( to compliment the 
Windows client).  It is also pretty easy to use, but not as easy as the 
first.  My preference would be the first, because of its ease of use 
and functionality, but we could certainly use the other one.

As per the suggestions to the list, I could envision something like the 
following:

1. a webconference between both meetings, with presenters giving 
updates on the meetings in both places, as well as updates from other 
presenters around the world on other relevant WSIS matters.  These 
presentations would be synchronous (in real time) and use voice, video 
(for those presenters with webcams), and other digital material (e.g., 
slides, websites) for illustration purposes.  Presenters should be 
prepared to either send us slides in advance, or to upload them from 
their location.

These presenters could be colleagues attending either meeting, or they 
could be colleagues not present at either meeting, but who have an 
information update (such as the state of play on the Prepcom 
preparations, Bureau issues, Internet Governance working group, 
financing working group, etc.).  This is what we did during Prepcom-3a 
from Geneva (some of you participated in that briefing remotely).

2. In addition to the participants who would sit in physical locations 
in both places (i.e., the computer lab at CTCNet and I'm not sure where 
in Berlin, but as long as they have an Internet connection, they could 
participate, we can have additional remote participants from around the 
world (maximum number 40, but could be on a first,come/first, served 
basis).

We would perhaps precede the updates with a very brief (15 minutes) 
training session on the virtual environment, so that people would feel 
comfortable being able to raise their hands to ask questions, etc.  If 
we wanted to, this could certainly get a lot more complicated with 
things like break-out rooms (eg., by language, theme, or region) and 
application sharing (but perhaps we should start small and take 
incremental steps).

 From our side, we would want to do a short survey after the session to 
better understand the participants experiences during the session, and 
perhaps follow-up with some interviews to help guide us in any future 
virtual meetings.

I finished teaching today, so my schedule is a little more flexible now 
(and I am focusing on these efforts for the summer).   My suggestion as 
a way forward is that the small group that is planning this should have 
a very focused virtual meeting soon (seems to me the following makes 
sense: Ralph, Michael, Robert, Andy, Amali, and myself - though others 
could certainly join in).  If this makes sense, we could have a more 
detailed discussion off-list of when and how this small group would 
meet.  My research group meets on Wednesday mornings (EDT), and it 
would be nice to incorporate any planning for this into our meeting 
tomorrow.

Kindest regards,
Derrick

Dr. Derrick L. Cogburn
Assistant Professor of Information and African Studies
School of Information and Center for Afroamerican and African Studies
The University of Michigan
http://www.si.umich.edu/~dcogburn

On Apr 20, 2004, at 1:32 PM, Andy Carvin wrote:

> Hi Ralf,
>
> The CTCNet conference ends on the afternoon of the 13th, so that 
> morning
> Seattle time, (ie late afternoon Berlin time), would make the most 
> sense.
> CTCNet has kindly offered to let us use their PC lab to participate in 
> a
> virtual meeting that morning; we would simply have to supply the 
> platform
> and any necessary media capture devices (namely a microphone and/or PC
> video camera).  I'm also exploring the possibility of holding an 
> informal
> "birds of  a feather" meeting at CTCNet that saturday afternoon as 
> well.
> So I don't think we should necessarily try to each stream our entire
> meetings; rather, we should set aside a particular time with a 
> structured
> list of issues/topics to discuss over the course of an hour or so.
>
> We've just started talking with Derrick Cogburn about virtual
> collaboration tools for holding the meeting; Derrick, could you CC Ralf
> when you respond to the list?
>
> thanks,
> ac
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------
> Andy Carvin
> Program Director
> EDC Center for Media & Community
> acarvin @ edc . org
> http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org
> -------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
> Ralf Bendrath <bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de>
> Sent by: n_america-admin at wsis-cs.org
> 04/19/04 01:13 PM
> Please respond to bendrath
>
>         To:     Amali De Silva <amalidesilva at yahoo.com>
>         cc:     mgurst at vcn.bc.ca, 'northamericalist'
> <n_america at wsis-cs.org>, rguerra at cpsr.org
>         Subject:        [n_america] Re: Re: European / North American 
> WSIS
> CS meeting, Berlin, 13 June
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Amali wrote:
>
>> Robert & Ralf  - what are your thoughts on Michaels proposal ?
>> Actually, I could go down to Seattle. I would be really interested in
>> seeing this happen.
>
>>> It may be of interest to note that CTCnet, the network of 1000+
> Community
>>> Technology Centres in the US
>>> (and with limited international representation) is having its annual
>>>  conference in Seattle on June 11 and 12.
>>> http://www2.ctcnet.org/conf/2004/about/index.htm
>
>> I'm organizing a Workshop there (although I may not be able to attend)
>> but there might be space for some sort of link.
>
>
> That could be interesting. We are still looking for video-conference
> facilities and will get back to both of you. I am not sure, though, if
> we can stream the whole meeting.
>
> But our WSIS meeting is on the 13th, and the Seattle conf. ends on the
> 12th?
> What would be a good timing for you then? I thought of a brief exchange
> of reports on both conferences. Maybe we can also get someone from the
> Wizards of OS conference to report on their outcomes. Let's keep in
> touch.
>
> Best,
>
> Ralf
>
>
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