*Attendees*

Ken Klingenstein (chair) - Colorado/Internet2
Renee Frost (acting co-chair) - Michigan/Internet2
Philippe Galvez - CERN
Art Vandenberg - Georgia State
Ellen Vaughan - Internet2
Bob Dixon - OSU
Tyler Johnson - UNC Chapel Hill
John McNair - Tennessee at Knoxville
Phil Galanter - NYU
Mary Fran Yafchak - SURA
Jim Whitlock - Buffalo
Jim DeRoest - Washington
Ben Roy - Washington
Mary Trauner - Georgia Tech
Egon Verharen - SURFnet
Ben Chinowsky (scribe) - Internet2

*Discussion*

There were no changes to the minutes of the previous meeting. The group reviewed action items:

[Ken will integrate Ted's inputs with his own and push out a document for why we need middleware to be displayed on the web site.]
Still to do; both Ted and Ken have sent their pieces to the list.

[Ken will contact Philippe Galvez about joining the group.]
Done; Philippe is on this call.

[Tyler will attempt to contact the appropriate vendors to have on the calls client-side, gatekeeper, and possibly open source representatives. He'll also talk with V-Con about their backend product.]
Tyler has contacted V-Con and OpenH323. V-Con is looking for the right person for him to talk to; he's gotten no reply yet from OpenH323.

[Jim DeRoest will send out a URL describing his activities while Philippe will send out a URL detailing the ongoings at the University of Glasgow. The group should contact colleagues in the UK to open communications.]
Done.

[Ken will ask Ted to ensure that the Internet2 Commons is a place where codecs can be discussed down to the hardware level.]
Still to do; Ted is in Thailand.

[Jim Whitlock will come up with a two-paragraph description of how he would use the capability to use real-time video alongside streaming in a manner not unlike TiVo for Internet video. Markus will be asked to write up a scenario using this capability for security cameras.]
Both documents have been written and sent to the list.

[The group solicited access scenarios from various colleges, such as UW and early adopters in New York.]
Done (overlaps with previous action item).

[The group needs the URL for the Dublin Core metadata on video extensions.]
Done.

[Ken will track down what he did with the SIP slides.]
Still to do.

[Ken will add Dave Nash to the list.]
Done.

The group reviewed VoD middleware issues, focusing on database schema being developed for streaming media at the University of Washington. Jim DeRoest noted that so far most of this work has been narrowly focused on categorizing content for UW's TV and radio stations; they are just starting to work with Bob Morgan on getting the resulting information into directories and using directory groups for access control. The UW group is also starting to look at including metadata with the media assets themselves; several people expressed interest in learning more about MPEG-7 for this purpose. [AI] Renee will ask Mairead Martin about the Dublin Core and MPEG-7 sessions at the August 15 ViDe workshop. [AI] Egon will ask his colleagues if translations between Dublin Core and MPEG-7 are available. The group discussed issues around integrating databases and directories for VoD; one big concern is that the database information can be extremely complex. The UW developers make the assumption that there will be a media server database which will not usually be accessed directly by users, together with many different tools to help users find the content they want. These tools will make use of directories that store subsets (such as that defined by Dublin Core) of the information available in the database.

There was a short discussion of the proper scope of SIP work in VidMid. Ken strongly recommended a SIP tutorial at http://iptel.org/sip/. There was general agreement that VidMid should take up issues around SIP and directories -- in particular, what SIP information to store and where to store it (e.g., off-campus server vs. campus enterprise directory) -- but leave SIP/H.323 interoperability issues to the Internet2 Commons or the VoIP working group. [AI] Ken will make a discussion of what SIP information should be stored in which directories a priority on the next VidMid call. [AI] Art will brief Samir Chatterjee on VidMid's SIP issues, and ask him to join the VidMid calls.

Ken noted that he had just sent out a draft why-video-needs-middleware document. The target audience for this document is first-time visitors to the VidMid web page. [AI] All will read Ken's why-video-needs-middleware draft, for discussion on the next call.

Finally the group discussed work on scenarios. Ken stressed that the scenarios are supposed to be statements of problems that VidMid wants to solve, not proposals for solutions to those problems. Ken also stressed the role of scenarios in keeping the group on track, and pointed out that the problems the scenarios describe may be easy to solve when taken separately, but hard when taken together. [AI] Ken will make a style recommendation for VidMid scenarios, blending the styles of the current versions of the videoconferencing, VoD, and security-cameras scenarios. *Scalability* and *ensuring consistency of information provided by different tools* were identified as key aspects of the problems to be described in VidMid scenarios. [AI] Egon will send the list 50 pages of scenarios covering three varieties of VoD. [AI] Art will draft a scenario for videoconferencing using an MCU. [AI] Ken will refine the point-to-point videoconferencing scenario. [AI] Ken will edit the current VoD scenario, focusing it on video production issues. [AI] Phil will draft a VoD scenario focusing on issues of concern to people assembling video collections, e.g., teachers preparing material for a class. [AI] Egon will draft a VoD scenario focusing on end-user issues. Ken suggested that scenario writers err on the side of excessive breadth and ambition, then prune their work as necessary; there was general approval. [AI] All scenario writers and revisers will get versions out in time for discussion on the next call, which will begin at 1600 UTC on August 6 (not July 23 as regularly scheduled).

*Action Items*

[AI] 9-July-2001 - Renee will ask Mairead Martin about the Dublin Core and MPEG-7 sessions at the August 15 ViDe workshop.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - Egon will ask his colleagues if translations between Dublin Core and MPEG-7 are available.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - Ken will make a discussion of what SIP information should be stored in which directories a priority on the next VidMid call.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - Art will brief Samir Chatterjee on VidMid's SIP issues, and ask him to join the VidMid calls.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - All will read Ken's why-video-needs-middleware draft, for discussion on the next call.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - Ken will make a style recommendation for VidMid scenarios, blending the styles of the current versions of the videoconferencing, VoD, and security-cameras scenarios.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - Egon will send the list 50 pages of scenarios covering three varieties of VoD.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - Art will draft a scenario for videoconferencing using an MCU.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - Ken will refine the point-to-point videoconferencing scenario.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - Ken will edit the current VoD scenario, focusing it on video production issues.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - Phil will draft a VoD scenario focusing on issues of concern to people assembling video collections, e.g., teachers preparing material for a class.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - Egon will draft a VoD scenario focusing on end-user issues.
[AI] 9-July-2001 - All scenario writers and revisers will get versions out in time for discussion on the next call, which will begin at 1600 UTC on August 6 (not July 23 as regularly scheduled).
[AI] 25-June-2001 - Ken will integrate Ted's inputs with his own and push out a document for why we need middleware to be displayed on the web site.
[AI] 25-June-2001 - Ken will ask Ted to ensure that the Internet2 Commons is a place where codecs can be discussed down to the hardware level.
[AI] 25-June-2001 - Ken will track down what he did with the SIP slides.