X-Sender: maryfran@mail.sura.org Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 13:33:20 -0500 To: pbs-demo@thequilt.net From: Mary Fran Yafchak Subject: Notes from PBS-Quilt project call, 2/28/03 Cc: Mary Fran Yafchak Status: Dear all, At the end of this message are the notes from the most recent PBS-Quilt call on 2/28/03. During this meeting, we came up with a couple of tasks that we really could use volunteer(s) to take charge of. These are: 1) Technical contact to interact between I2 E2E and this project - This will most likely come into play as we begin networking between project partners and participating K-12s. E2E is interested in helping out but they are also very busy and need to find a way to help without spreading themselves too thin. This point of contact on the PBS-Quilt side will not necessarily be the one to solve technical problems (though we wouldn't stop them...) but would coordinate as needed with other PBS-Quilters to streamline the troubleshooting process and communications with E2E. 2) Program-minded information seeker - The idea came up of doing market research or a survey to determine the interest that various potential audiences would have in various types of content and enhancements. A carry-over and related topic is that of suggesting/pursuing suitable funding ideas. We are interested in finding someone to take the lead in this. As with the technical contact, we wouldn't expect this person to develop/implement/analyze a survey or identify/develop/write funding proposals (though, again, we wouldn't stop them!) but rather to lead the thinking/planning of such things and keep them on the burner. Please let me know if you would interested in helping out with either of the above. Finally, for your calendars since we missed a *bunch* of folks last time - The next call will be March 15, 12:30 p.m. EST, 800-998-2462, code: 6305950 -mfy **************************** PBS-Quilt meeting, 2/28/03 Attendees: * MFY * David Felland, MPTV * Jim Kutzner, PBS * Matt Zekauskas, Internet2 End-to-End Performance working group * Mike Wellings, UWash/Research Channel * Ellen Vaughan, I2 1) Mike Wellings, the Director of Engineering for Research Channel, has joined the group. Mike has done work w/MPEG2 over IP, high bit rate MPEG2, HDTV over IP, development of a desktop HD client (modified VideoCharger client/server - currently software-based, working on hardware-based as well), among other things. He will send additional background to the list. Mike has joined us to see if there are collaborative possibilities between what we are doing and current/planned Research Channel activities. [Note after the meeting: Mike and his colleague, Jim DeRoest, are not on the list yet so we will need to cc them on communications until they are added: Michael Wellings , James W DeRoest .] 2) Continued discussion on decoder clients - Ellen provided additional information on V-Brick availability through I2. These are not generally loaned to K-12 but because of this project umbrella, they could probably be made available, first come first serve and short term only (usually a couple of weeks). V-Brick as a company may be interested in direct loaners and also has a longer term loaner program (6 weeks, but not months!). Ellen will check for regional contacts within V-Brick. [Note after the meeting: Ellen has since sent the following to pass along to the group - She has talked with the I2 VBrick liaison and they have their own loaner pool as well as ~100 resellers around the country who have loaner boxes. It's likely that they will be able to loan boxes to schools for the project but the duration will have to be discussed on a case-by-case basis.] Mike W. suggested Amis (formerly Optivision) as an alternative for this. Research Channel has four of these units and, though they can't loan them, they would be interested in experimenting with interoperably. One advantage is that you can buy transmit and receive boxes separately so a participantcould start as receiver and expand their role fairly readily later on. David F. reminded all that reception of the content is critical but that we also want to take advantage of the two-way potential and look for content participants from different locations that would interact within the same broadcast. 2) Status of E2E - Matt Zekauskas joined us on this call. Discussion of how E2E could be involved led to the need for a single contact person on the PBS-Quilt side. MFY will ask for volunteers from the full pbs-demo list. This contact person would draw on other content experts in the group as needed. For example, David volunteered to be a resource for production technologies and suggested that Jim Kutzner/Thomas Edwards could do the same for PBS distribution technology and relationship with member stations; Steven Vedro may be interested in sheparding along technical issues in general.] 3) Additional content description & next steps - Dave sent more information to the list prior to the meeting describing the Amazon River Exhibit. He added in the meeting that this is very much a sketch and that he would like/needs the group to ask lots of questions to flesh this into something we can work with. The zoo is very willing to do whatever we ask for, we need to define what that is. Discussion then came around to the fact that additional input on that should ideally come from the intended content receivers. We need to develop a plan for further qualification and contact with the endpoints proposed thus far. We agreed to send a communication to those who we have listed in the spreadsheet as initial contacts for the lists of schools and school districts. There are about 5 or 6 contacts in that group and we should develop an introductory document to start the conversation. That doc would include things like: * Project description/objectives, who's involved * Description of available content (current feeds we are working wth most specifically, could also talk about potential of other feeds) * Planned content enhancements (so far), and our need to get their input on those and other possibilities * Possible roles for interacting with the content/this project: - transmit/receive HD content realtime - transmit/receive dual feed of/HD and lower bandwith info loop - submit enhancements related to the content - be a content generator * Required equipment (MFY to resend what was discussed in earlier meetings) [Note after meeting: Earlier, we described requirements as 15 to 20 Mbps *available* I2 bandwidth, 100BT local wiring, teacher(s) willing to use this content and report back on what they did. Also need a decoder for whatever stream they are receiving and an appropriate display (HDTV, HD projector or multiscan computer monitor).] * Ask them more about how they match the current equipment requirements; also who at their location would be the receivers of the content and what type/format content are they interested in? David volunteered himself and Steven Vedro to draft the first version of this document and send it to the list for review. 4) Related Topics - The idea came up of doing market research or a survey to determine what interest various potential audiences would have in what particular content and enhancements. This led to some discussion on the fact that we don't have anyone thinking along this sort of "program building" line. Another open topic that could fit in this category is funding ideas. Acknowledging the circular problem of not having resources to seek the necessary resources (!), we will ask for volunteer(s) from the group who might be interested in taking the lead in this area. -- ************************************************************ Mary Fran Yafchak IT Program Coordinator SURA (Southeastern Universities Research Association) http://www.sura.org "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it" A. Einstein. ************************************************************