RE: [council] Regarding web conferencing tool that was trialed during the call
Hello Sophia, It was all my fault. I have been hearing requests for adding web conferencing like tools to our teleconferences for several years, and it has certainly been discussed again more recently. Rather than wait another year while we all talk about how things could be better, I thought it would be novel to try something new to improve participation in the Council call. The choice of tool was based on convenience (it is the same provider (MCI/Verizon) as our voice conferencing service), and based on the requirements I have seen on the list so far. The GNSO Secretariat only returned from leave the day before the call, and I asked her to add this service to give it a try. There was no requirement from any Council members to try the service. The call was run the same way as usual as a voice conferencing call. I didn't want to waste too much time on the call itself to talk about the tool. Once we have a tool that seems to meet all the requirements, we can then arrange some more structured training in its use. - Possibility to show online presentations e.g. Powerpoint - Possibility to access to a online realtime scribe - Possibility to ask questions via a messenger system - Possibility to "raise a hand". - Possibility to see who's on the call - MP3 recording - product/service should be independent of any the operating system I believe that it meets most of the requirements above, although it doesn't seem to be a good solution for those that are not using a Windows PC. If someone has an Apple Machintosh and is willing (or able) to investigate further - I would be interested to know if it is possible to use this service. I am not sure whether the vendor provides a real-time scribe - we could certainly arrange for someone to do that separately - or potentially use some voice/text software to try this in real-time. This matter is being discussed in open discussion on the list. I took into account the list discussion before requesting the Secretariat to give it a try - at least this can help get the requirements more refined. Note that my personal resources and ICANN staff resources are quite limited - so constructive help is appreciated more than complaints. The policy staff does not have any direct technical support, and in fact the technical resources at ICANN are stretched very thin. In terms of Council work practices - for most of the meetings you have participated in so far in person - we have tried different things to make us more productive. So it is not surprising that the work practices are hard to understand - that is because we are trying different approaches to make progress, and we mostly volunteer our own personal time. I do agree that next time I will try to give more notice of the test, and provide links to help files etc. I agree that it also would have been useful at the end of the call to allow some time for discussion - but it was then midnight for me after a very busy day - and chairing a call that is contentious at times is also very tiring. I welcome other Councillors taking some initiative to set up some technology for use by the Council. Ross Rader in particular has been helpful in this regard. Regards, Bruce Tonkin
Bruce, Thank you for you clarification, a bit late after my SHOUT.
Note that my personal resources and ICANN staff resources are quite limited - so constructive help is appreciated more than complaints. The policy staff does not have any direct technical support, and in fact the technical resources at ICANN are stretched very thin.
I would think taking initiative to organize a methodical approach to doing things is hardly a complaint Bruce. In any case, your inferences throughout suggests that everyone goes out on an investigation camp to recommend what is best, while I would suggest that we ask or assign one or few people to lead it. In terms of Council work practices - for most of the meetings you have
participated in so far in person - we have tried different things to make us more productive. So it is not surprising that the work practices are hard to understand - that is because we are trying different approaches to make progress, and we mostly volunteer our own personal time.
I understand we are trying different approaches and am in sync with that Bruce, I was NOT referring to productivity tools as such, it is more of a work group managment style ;;)
I welcome other Councillors taking some initiative to set up some technology for use by the Council. Ross Rader in particular has been helpful in this regard.
Ross mentioned an idea in Wellington. I am sure WHOIS has kept Ross busy as well. Do we know what it is yet? Peace to all! Sophia On 13/04/06, Bruce Tonkin <Bruce.Tonkin@melbourneit.com.au> wrote:
Hello Sophia,
It was all my fault.
I have been hearing requests for adding web conferencing like tools to our teleconferences for several years, and it has certainly been discussed again more recently.
Rather than wait another year while we all talk about how things could be better, I thought it would be novel to try something new to improve participation in the Council call.
The choice of tool was based on convenience (it is the same provider (MCI/Verizon) as our voice conferencing service), and based on the requirements I have seen on the list so far.
The GNSO Secretariat only returned from leave the day before the call, and I asked her to add this service to give it a try.
There was no requirement from any Council members to try the service. The call was run the same way as usual as a voice conferencing call. I didn't want to waste too much time on the call itself to talk about the tool.
Once we have a tool that seems to meet all the requirements, we can then arrange some more structured training in its use.
- Possibility to show online presentations e.g. Powerpoint - Possibility to access to a online realtime scribe - Possibility to ask questions via a messenger system - Possibility to "raise a hand". - Possibility to see who's on the call - MP3 recording - product/service should be independent of any the operating system
I believe that it meets most of the requirements above, although it doesn't seem to be a good solution for those that are not using a Windows PC. If someone has an Apple Machintosh and is willing (or able) to investigate further - I would be interested to know if it is possible to use this service. I am not sure whether the vendor provides a real-time scribe - we could certainly arrange for someone to do that separately - or potentially use some voice/text software to try this in real-time.
This matter is being discussed in open discussion on the list. I took into account the list discussion before requesting the Secretariat to give it a try - at least this can help get the requirements more refined.
Note that my personal resources and ICANN staff resources are quite limited - so constructive help is appreciated more than complaints. The policy staff does not have any direct technical support, and in fact the technical resources at ICANN are stretched very thin.
In terms of Council work practices - for most of the meetings you have participated in so far in person - we have tried different things to make us more productive. So it is not surprising that the work practices are hard to understand - that is because we are trying different approaches to make progress, and we mostly volunteer our own personal time.
I do agree that next time I will try to give more notice of the test, and provide links to help files etc. I agree that it also would have been useful at the end of the call to allow some time for discussion - but it was then midnight for me after a very busy day - and chairing a call that is contentious at times is also very tiring.
I welcome other Councillors taking some initiative to set up some technology for use by the Council. Ross Rader in particular has been helpful in this regard.
Regards, Bruce Tonkin
hi, I commend the experiment. And since it was not a requirement for participation, i do not see any harm in the experimental mode. I think that we should continue experimentation, and am willing to muddle through with other willing victims (I mean early adopters) until we figure out what works and what doesn't. Thanks for trying a. On 13 apr 2006, at 06.14, Bruce Tonkin wrote:
Rather than wait another year while we all talk about how things could be better, I thought it would be novel to try something new to improve participation in the Council call.
I also support learning by doing. Many of these services nominally offer similar functions, so it is only ever going to be by use that we learn. I think the Mac issue is an important one. However I suspect the service is not platform limited despite its pedigree. Philip
On 13 apr 2006, at 07.23, Philip Sheppard wrote:
I think the Mac issue is an important one. However I suspect the service is not platform limited despite its pedigree.
- i prefer software of other pedigree - but it did seem to work on both of my macs (a powerbook and a mini) though it requires an updated version of Java - as i did not have a linux box at my disposal at the moment (as it has crashed badly and needs a rebuild) i did not try it on linux. a.
- as i did not have a linux box at my disposal at the moment (as it has crashed badly and needs a rebuild) i did not try it on linux.
I did. It didn't work, even after quite a bit of fiddling. I had no other computer at hand and therefore couldn't participate in the trial run. Given our close association with Steve Crocker maybe we should try his Shinkuro? http://www.shinkuro.com/ I am not prepared to migrate to a MicroSoft working environment. Given the range of candidate solutions to our need that are truly cross-platform, I hope we'll do a bit more looking around before committing to an inflexible alternative. /Cary
On 13 apr 2006, at 08.09, Cary Karp wrote:
Given our close association with Steve Crocker maybe we should try his Shinkuro?
i use this for file sharing. i did not realize it had conferencing capabilities. a. avri!shinkuro.com
hi, Actually I see it does have some of the capabilities. I am willing to test them with any other GSNO council member who also has it set up. a. On 13 apr 2006, at 09.35, Avri Doria wrote:
On 13 apr 2006, at 08.09, Cary Karp wrote:
Given our close association with Steve Crocker maybe we should try his Shinkuro?
i use this for file sharing. i did not realize it had conferencing capabilities.
a.
avri!shinkuro.com
Actually I see it does have some of the capabilities. I am willing to test them with any other GSNO council member who also has it set up.
I'd be glad to help put it through its paces. I haven't used my Shinkuro account for quite a while, though, and need a day or so to fish out my coordinates and make sure that I have a recent version up and running. /Cary
Dear All,
I also support learning by doing. Many of these services nominally offer similar functions, so it is only ever going to be by use that we learn. I think the Mac issue is an important one. However I suspect the service is not platform limited despite its pedigree.
I am not prepared to migrate to a MicroSoft working environment. Given
the range of candidate solutions to our need that are truly cross-platform, I hope we'll do a bit more looking around before committing to an inflexible alternative.
We all have been in technology environment and have seen vraious implementation styles as above. However, I find it counterproductive to read through all this. I am not sure how productive test trails of 25 products will be either, even 10 and sharing it with us, i.e shrinko whatever....certainly I was hoping that we focus on important issues of policy during council time, than gadget test trails. My suggestion, although I came across strong, was to find closure for some of the the admin matters to be discussed seriously at ONE point (as Bruce has said...folks have discussed it for several years...), b y assigning interested volunteers to champion issues, in this case Ross, and suggest what is best for us. At a minimum, we can provide input to the point person, but at least it is on on our face at every meeting. Given that we do the same for other admin matter, i.e wesite etc..I hope we all do not get to experiment the same way! I am hoping that the council time is not allocated as technical trail lab to improve our learning curves. I certainly could be spared, as I have limited time for such experiment or reading GNSO lists for outcome of every experiment and wait for the subject line to read "Final 3 web conferencing choices" . Bruce suggested current trail for expediency's sake, and do not think it was his intention to keep experimenting at the cost of Council time. Sophia On 13/04/06, Cary Karp <ck@nic.museum> wrote:
- as i did not have a linux box at my disposal at the moment (as it has crashed badly and needs a rebuild) i did not try it on linux.
I did. It didn't work, even after quite a bit of fiddling. I had no other computer at hand and therefore couldn't participate in the trial run.
Given our close association with Steve Crocker maybe we should try his Shinkuro?
I am not prepared to migrate to a MicroSoft working environment. Given the range of candidate solutions to our need that are truly cross-platform, I hope we'll do a bit more looking around before committing to an inflexible alternative.
/Cary
participants (5)
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Avri Doria -
Bruce Tonkin -
Cary Karp -
Philip Sheppard -
Sophia B