Wow! This is really interesting - see below Darlene A. Thompson Community Access Program Administrator Nunavut Department of Education/N-CAP c/o P.O. Box 1000, Station 910 Iqaluit, NU X0A 0H0 Phone: (867) 975-6531 Fax: (867) 979-8870 dthompson@gov.nu.ca ________________________________ From: secretariat-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:secretariat-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Nick Ashton-Hart Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 1:40 PM To: secretariat@atlarge-lists.icann.org Subject: [Secretariat] Fwd: Simultaneous Multilanguage Teleconferences - AReality! Dear Secretariats: I'm very happy to forward you the below! Carlton, this means we can do the monthly meetings in two languages - but it will require strong chairing ; see below. Begin forwarded message: From: Nick Ashton-Hart <nick.ashton-hart@icann.org> Date: 14 August 2007 18:36:25 BDT To: icann-staff@icann.org Subject: Simultaneous Multilanguage Teleconferences - A Reality! Dear Colleagues: I'm very pleased to tell you that we have today proven that it is possible for a teleconference to be simultaneously interpreted in multiple languages without disruption of the flow of the meeting. Verizon has a little-known interpretation option available. What this does is provide a subconference of the main conference, where those who speak, for example, French, are linked to the main conference by the interpreter. The interpreter hears the main conference in English and interprets this into French; the French-speakers hear only the French interpretation. When the French speakers wish to speak, the flow reverses - and the English main conference hears the interpreted English of the interpreter, while the interpreter hears the French speaker. It does require some discipline on the part of those on the conference: 1) Each speaker needs to say their name - the interpreter then says the name of the person whom they are interpreting, so those on the subconference know whom they are 'listening' to. 2) Conference attendees need to avoid overtalking - multiple people speaking at the same time - by asking to take the floor. 3) It works best if those not speaking for a while mute their line to preserve the clarity of the call 4) Last, but not least - participants need to speak slowly, to allow the interpreters to keep up. Verizon do not supply the interpreters, by the way; this is done by a separate service. We used Paragon, who provide some of the written translation services for ICANN at the moment. I'm personally breathing a big sigh of relief as we have one At-Large region - Latin America and the Caribbean - who have a large number of participants that do not speak English well, and they want to start holding monthly meetings to work on policy but have been holding back until we tried this service out, as the language barrier combined with a telephonic connection and a highly technical subject matter would have been too much of a barrier. I did speak to the French speaker from my call today and was told that she was able to feel like a full participant in the work of the ALAC for the first time and was overjoyed. If any of you want to know more about how to make this work, please let me know. It may interest you to know that the quality of the call management by Verizon was the best I have ever experienced; there were minor issues but I have to say this call was the smoothest running of any Verizon teleconference I've been on in almost a year. -- Regards, Nick Ashton-Hart Director, At-Large ICANN PO Box 32160 London N4 2XY United Kingdom Main Tel: +44 (20) 8800-1011] USA Tel: +1 (202) 657-5460 Fax (UK): +44 (20) 7681-3135 Fax (Swiss): +41 (22) 594-85-44 Mobile (UK): +44 (7774) 932798 Mobile (Swiss): +41 (79) 595 54-68 email: nick.ashton-hart@icann.org Win IM: ashtonhart@hotmail.com / AIM/iSight: nashtonhart@mac.com / Skype: nashtonhart Online Bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashtonhart