*VidMid Conference Call*
April 17, 2001
*Attendees*
Ken Klingenstein (chair) - Colorado/Internet2
Egon Verharen - SURFnet
Ivana Belgers - SURFnet
David Pokorney - Florida
Mary Trauner - Georgia Tech
Mike Staman - Macon State
Bob Riddle - Internet2
Michael Gettes - Georgetown
Art Vandenberg - Georgia State
Ted Hanss - Internet2
Renee Frost - Michigan/Internet2
Mark Poepping - CMU
Dan McCarriar - CMU
Ellen Vaughan - Internet2
Keith Portis - Nebraska
Ben Chinowsky (scribe) - Internet2
*Discussion*
The first part of the call was devoted to administrative matters. The group agreed to call itself "VidMid"; [AI] Renee will change the list name from midvid@internet2.edu to vidmid@internet2.edu. The group agreed to have minutes of its biweekly conference calls posted to the Internet2 Middleware Initiative site; minutes will be written in a summary narrative style (like this), with more transcript-like notes possibly being provided as well, in the event of a controversy necessitating a more exact account of who said what. Ken will chair for the time being; [AI] anyone interested in chairing VidMid will send mail to Ken.
The main part of the call was a discussion of the scope of the VidMid effort. It was agreed that VidMid's initial focus will be *resource discovery and authentication for videoconferencing, both point-to-point and multipoint*. This includes multiple types of videoconferencing -- most centrally H.323, but also (for example) HDTV and VRVS -- but excludes things like Mary's work on multimedia medical records, where video is, as Mark put it, "just another object that's in an object store someplace." Ken noted that H.323's maturity makes it particularly worthy of attention; lack of middleware is almost the only thing standing in the way of the widespread adoption of H.323. The group was divided on the inclusion of VoIP in VidMid's work; no decision was taken. Ken asked if there were objections to having vendors, including those that are not Internet2 Corporate Members, on the VidMid conference calls; there were no objections. [AI] All who know of vendors with something to contribute to VidMid, will contact them and ask them to participate. [AI] All will send material for the VidMid web pages to chinowsky@internet2.edu.
Next the group discussed related work happening elsewhere.
- Ken called attention to the May 9-11 Common Solutions Group meeting, which will focus on videoconferencing; see http://www.stonesoup.org.
- Ted is planning a meeting with Microsoft at which company representatives will outline their views on videoconferencing and Microsoft's role in it. Ken noted that Microsoft is very interested in SIP.
- Egon, who chairs the TERENA videoconferencing working group, noted that TERENA is looking into QoS for videoconferencing, and that Megaconference III will implement QoS among different MCUs. [AI] Egon will send out a URL for TERENA's QoS-for-videoconferencing work. [AI] Egon will look into SIP activities in Europe.
- Mike S. suggested that VidMid follow the work of the Net@EDU Integrated Communications Strategies working group, which he co-chairs. See http://www.educause.edu/netatedu/groups/ics/.
- [AI] Ken will ask Mary Fran Yafchak to provide ITU and IETF updates on the next call. It was noted that both ViDe and Internet2 have considered and so far rejected the idea of joining ITU; for both organizations, it may be time to revisit this decision.
Finally the group reviewed actions to be taken in preparation for the next meeting. Ken stressed the importance of VidMid specifying the scenarios it is to address: "we like to get these clearly stated and call everything else out of scope." From there the group will proceed to specifying requirements, architectures, flows, protocols, and standards. [AI] Renee will set up an archive for the VidMid list. [AI] Renee will resend Tyler Johnson's comments and Art's directory scenarios to the list, for discussion on the next call. [AI] All who are not yet on the VidMid list will contact Renee to be added. [AI] Ken will bone up on SIP for the next call; he suggested that others do likewise.
The next call will take place on Tuesday, May 1, at 15:00 UTC, which is 8am on the Pacific coast of the US and 5pm in the Netherlands.
*Action Items*
[AI] Renee will change the list name from midvid@internet2.edu to vidmid@internet2.edu.
[AI] Anyone interested in chairing VidMid will send mail to Ken.
[AI] All who know of vendors with something to contribute to VidMid, will contact them and ask them to participate.
[AI] All will send material for the VidMid web pages to chinowsky@internet2.edu.
[AI] Egon will send out a URL for TERENA's QoS-for-videoconferencing work.
[AI] Egon will look into SIP activities in Europe.
[AI] Ken will ask Mary Fran Yafchak to provide ITU and IETF updates on the next call.
[AI] Renee will set up an archive for the VidMid list.
[AI] Renee will resend Tyler Johnson's comments and Art's directory scenarios to the list, for discussion on the next call.
[AI] All who are not yet on the VidMid list will contact Renee to be added.
[AI] Ken will bone up on SIP for the next call; he suggested that others do likewise.