VidMid Conference Call, August 20, 2001

*VidMid Conference Call*
August 20, 2001

*Attendees*

Ken Klingenstein (chair) - Colorado/Internet2
Karen Krivaa - RADVISION
Grace Agnew - Georgia Tech
Michael Gettes - Georgetown
Art Vandenberg - Georgia State
Egon Verharen - SURFnet
Renee Frost - Michigan/Internet2
Mairead Martin - Tennessee
Mary Trauner - Georgia Tech
Samir Chatterjee - Claremont Graduate U.
Ben Chinowsky (scribe) - Internet2

*Discussion*

The minutes from the previous call were approved without changes. With respect to the action item on codec hardware issues, Ken noted that it has been agreed that the Internet2 Commons, not VidMid, will address these issues.

Grace reported back from the "Managing Digital Video Content" workshop. The most widely and urgently expressed concern at the workshop was finding a way to do rights management; existing practices appear to be woefully inadequate given the emerging needs of research and education. CNI, SIMI, and AMIA are interested in working together on this set of problems. Specifics include: metadata format, whether to make the metadata part of the media file or put it in a directory, and authorization: given a set of rights and a user, how do you determine what the user can do? Grace noted that the workshop had brought together people who usually aren't, and Mairead noted that one action item coming out the meeting was to create an email list to explore how these diverse groups can continue to work together. Presentations from the workshop are available at http://www.vide.net/conferences/.

Ken has incorporated the last round of comments into the why-video-needs-middleware document; he asked anyone who wants to review the document further before it's posted to send him email. [AI] Ben will post the why-video-needs-middleware document and reorganize the site to reflect its structure.

The group discussed next steps for scenario writing. Art has collected and summarized VidMid's scenario work so far (see http://middleware.internet2.edu/video/draft-vandenberg-vidmid-scenarios-summary-00.txt); in email sent August 14, he proposes that VidMid:

1. Take Scenarios we have collected to date...and slot them as VoD, Video Conferencing, or put aside for later;
2. Either collapse them into one scenario if appropriate, or leave as a scenario instance;
3. Develop scenarios with Description, Example, Needed Components sections. Scenarios should account for access (who can access what, when, how), metadata (catalog or directory data needed for persons and objects), and how real-time and archival aspects interact.

The upshot of the recent list discussion of the definition of VoD is that there is substantial overlap between videoconferencing and VoD, with the main thing distinguishing them being that videoconferencing is more interactive than VoD. [AI] Mairead will write a very short summary of VidMid's defining-VoD discussion. Taking note of the VoD/videoconferencing overlap, and also of Art's warning that the Needed Components section of the scenarios should not edge over from stating problems into trying to solve them, the group agreed to use VoD and videoconferencing as its top-level scenario categories, and that the scenarios should be developed per Art's item 3 above. However, instead of the group collecting and collapsing scenarios as Art proposed in items 1 and 2, [AI] Egon, borrowing freely from all of VidMid's scenario work so far, will rewrite the scenarios at http://www.surfnet.nl/innovatie/surfworks/showcase/h20.html in the agreed description-example-needs format. [AI] All who have material for incorporation into VidMid scenarios will send it to Egon.

Mairead reported that she had looked for scenario-writing guidelines of other organizations, and found none. Egon noted that he likes to begin a scenario with an interview with a real user, or even get such an individual to write the first draft of the scenario.

Ken announced that he's expecting an infusion of funding for VidMid activities sometime in the next few weeks. The funding agency needs to see a workplan for the year starting Sept. 1. [AI] All will send the list suggestions for a one-year VidMid workplan.

Finally there was a discussion of SIP and the SIP-vs-H.323 issue. Ken put forward "interrealm SIP" as an important but neglected area of work, and one for which Internet2 could provide an excellent testbed. Samir outlined progress on his SIP overview document; he cited "how to traverse firewalls" as a particularly important issue, and there was general agreement. [AI] Egon will include firewalls in one of the VidMid scenarios. Ken asked if VidMid is going to have to take a side soon in the SIP-vs-H.323 controversy; Karen said that VidMid will have to do interoperability, as people won't just discard the H.323 solutions they've invested in, even where SIP would be the better technology if they were starting from scratch. Art suggested that VidMid produce a scenario addressing the SIP-vs-H.323 issue.

Due to Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, and the first day of the Internet2 Member Meeting, the Sept. 3, Sept. 17 and Oct. 1 VidMid calls are cancelled; the next two calls will instead be on Sept. 10 and Sept. 24, at the usual time of 1600 UTC / 12:00 noon EDT / 9:00 am PDT. The call schedule for October is still to be determined.

*Action Items*

[AI] 20-August-2001 - Ben will post the why-video-needs-middleware document and reorganize the site to reflect its structure.
[AI] 20-August-2001 - Mairead will write a very short summary of VidMid's defining-VoD discussion.
[AI] 20-August-2001 - Egon, borrowing freely from all of VidMid's scenario work so far, will rewrite the scenarios at http://www.surfnet.nl/innovatie/surfworks/showcase/h20.html in the agreed description-example-needs format.
[AI] 20-August-2001 - All who have material for incorporation into VidMid scenarios will send it to Egon.
[AI] 20-August-2001 - All will send the list suggestions for a one-year VidMid workplan.
[AI] 20-August-2001 - Egon will include firewalls in one of the VidMid scenarios.
[AI] 6-August-2001 - All who have information on live streaming video in the context of a broader VoD service, will send it to the list.
[AI] 6-August-2001 - Samir will look into the availability and qualities of public SIP servers.