From KAREN wiki
ICBF / KAREN Champions project
The ICBF (Institutional Component of the Capability Fund) Project allocated $50,000 to each CRI and University member of KAREN to enable them to determine the best way to grow value from their new connectivity. You can view updates from participating organisations below:
Events / News
Held on the afternoon of Wednesday 15 October, this event brought together over 20 KAREN champions, advocates and representatives from key government agencies. Participants are invited to share their thoughts on the event and add to the notes from the meeting.
KAREN champions video conferencing series
REANNZ recognises that video conferencing is a service that many members are finding significant early value in. However, using VC (video conferencing) is not yet as smooth as using the telephone or email. Multiple standards, vendors and types of VC can put barriers between the user and the benefits.
To help tackle these barriers and get maximum utilisation from the video bridge trial service, REANNZ is hosting a regular (weekly to fortnightly) series of video conferences aimed at bringing on and getting initially Champions, and then the wider community, comfortable with this new way of interacting.
We will post a summary of each video conference that we host. We are happy to put you in touch with any of the participants or answer any questions that you have. We encourage you to test your vc endpoints prior to the any video conference that you join and REANNZ staff are more than happy to help with this. Please send e-mails to John Sto.Tomas [1].
- September 26 2008
A great event, led by Acting Vice Chancellor Ian Town from U of Canterbury. Six participants, the majority of which were trying to connect from desktop clients. Content covered included high performance computing and desktop client access.
Summary points:
- Tony Dale of the University of Canterbury is available to answer questions about how to prepare your data for processing by BlueJean or another supercomputer tony.dale@canterbury.ac.nz. Tony demonstrated the transfer of research files using FileZilla from user files to the BlueJean supercomputer.
- EVO's integration with H323 protocols (that supported by the KAREN VC bridge and "commercial" VC end-points) is immature and unreliable under usage. More understanding of what configuration is needed to work with the bridge. Currently, REANNZ is researching the status of development in this area to see of there are solutions on how to fine tune the EVO configuration to work with the KAREN Bridge. After finding the solution we will upload it to the AVCC website and notify Champions. KAREN VC Service
- REANNZ will post informal "star" ratings for video conference desmtop software such as Mirial Softphone, EVO etc with explanations for the ratings.
- KAREN Champion projects will accelerate in early 2009, check the projects by member with the links below. Staffing and programs are now in place across most participating members.
- Check the AVCC website for the latest KAREN Bridge tips and tricks. We are regularly updating the website to include useful information about how to use the service. AVCC
- All members are encouraged to test your video endpoint with REANNZ, we can help you find the best configuration.
- The software update for the KAREN Bridge, IPVCR and the ISDN gateway, took place last Friday, September 19 to improve the capabilities of the vc equipment.
- November 5 2008
Video conferencing configuration testing
- November 12 2008
KAREN Video Conferencing Bridge testing with Lincoln University
- November 12
National Video Conferencing Discussion
Representatives from REANNZ, MoRST, and the University of Canterbury met to discuss the National Video Conferencing Service Centre. Proposals include creating an IP Directory for video conferencing endpoints and support documents for at least 5 types of desktop and room based video conferencing endpoints. The centre will serve the Universities and Crown Research Institutes. Bids to host the centre are now closed and the successful applicant will begin phase 1 of the centre in January, 2009.
Currently, the only 5 applications widely used by members are;
- Access Grid
- H.323 High definiton video
- EVO
- Mirial softphone
- Adobe Connect
REANNZ recently tested the Emblaze VCON Vpoint HD software and a review is available at this link Emblaze software review
Obstacles to video conferencing use included:
- Lack of tech support, especially for access grids
- Lack if information campaign and marketing support
- Lack of national video conferencing standards
- Limited budgets for new video conferencing hardware
- Lack of training to use endpoints
- Lack of an endpoint directory to locate potential collaborators
- Lack of interoperability between video endpoints
- Lack technical support for outdated VC endpoints
Ideally, the National Video Conferencing Centre will solve some of these problems.
A proposal was also made to draw up a criteria for each members to comply to make their endpoint Quality Assured and Certified. This may revolve around compliance with international VC standards (ITU-T, etc) as well as those set by the Central support centre.
Questions that remain
- How will the Polytechnics be served?
- How will schools handle their video conferencing service needs?
- November 19 2008
VC Basics led by Dr. Julia Charity from Scion, REANNZ, and Nathan Gardiner from the University of Canterbury. Particpants also included the University of Waikato, GNS, Lincoln University, Massey University, Agile, the University of Canterbury dept of social science, and ESR. Content included Scion's successes in increasing video conferencing usage across the organisation and a discussion about desktop video conferencing solutions.
Summary Points:
Dr. Julia Charity
Investment in hardware and support from senior management is critical to successful video conferencing.
- Scion has invested in two dedicated video conferencing rooms, one large for 50K and one small for 15K. It is essential to have a dedicated video conferencing room. In the future they will build a desktop video conferencing booth which is designed to make new users feel more comfortble.
Support from IT is vital
- Support for an online booking system and all applications made users feel comfortable to use Scion's equipment regularly.
- IT also created supporting guides with pictures and powerpoints.
How to encourage usage
- Look at existing vc usage on the KAREN bridge or equipment logs. Ask existing users to turn some of their existing 1-2 hour meetings into video conferences. Ask them to encourgage others to use video conferencing.
- Hold seminars in video conferencing rooms so that interested staff who are at other sites or traveling are to participate.
- Make a collaboration list of researchers to target for video conferencing usage.
- Talk to regular travelers about using the video conferencing suite.
- Find out if there are student supervisor meetings that could take place using video conferencing. Check payroll for this.
- Job interviews may be done using video conferencing.
- Important company meetings may be attended by absent senior staff through video conferencing even if it means using a private end point.
- Set up a web cam in a laboratory to share ideas about an experiment.
- Positive word of mouth helps spread usage.
- Mention video conferencing in organisation newsletters.
- Establish a user friendly video conferencing booth or kiosk.
Nathan Gardiner
Desktop Video Conferencing
- Do you need standard or high definition?
- Most desktop video conferencing tools are flexible and interoperable
- Common types include
- Evaluate on the basis of ease of use
- Do you have the correct hardware? Dual core processor, etc.
- November 26 2008
The Current State of BestGRID
- December 10 2008
An overview of Bluefern HPC on KAREN
