New *Action Items*
[AI] {Nadim} will send email to the {VidMid-VC} mailing list with use case scenarios and infrastructure pieces - regarding work that has been submitted to ITU - in the form of diagrams, to convey pictorially the aims of federated videoconferencing.

Carry Over *Action Items*
[AI] {Nadim} will send out information about a proposed design meeting to identify potential partners and future steps to take.

[AI] {Jill} will prepare a one-page summary directed towards RTC, which details available H.350 resources that could be deployed widely, and suggestions for packaging, in the effort to push out more information to Higher Education.

*Discussion*
VidMid-VC will hold a BoF at the upcoming Internet2 Spring Member Meeting - Monday, May 2nd at 3:00- 4:30 pm. This will be an open Working Group meeting to discuss the federated secure model, and what VidMid-VC needs to accomplish in order to achieve that goal.

{Jill} guided the majority of the discussion with several diagrams from the MACE-Mlist, which she had posted to the {VidMid-VC} mailing list (10-Mar-05). Refer to <http://webapp.lab.ac.uab.edu/wiki/mlist/> and <http://webapp.lab.ac.uab.edu/wiki/mlist/index.php/OurModels>. These were helpful to the MACE-Mlist WG, and also the Sympa mailing list developers, who applied these models to their own software. Diagrams such as these may prove to be a valuable tool in setting up the direction of VidMid-VC. Basically, the process to follow is: 1) use 1 or more models of Mlist software, 2) identify potential middleware interactions for each function, 3) look at our 2 models to find common descriptors of middleware interaction, the 4) look in detail at what the application would query for, and what that response would be.

From the MACE-Mlist link:
The Our-Models link is an overview diagram of how the mailing list application operates. Within mailing lists, there are several functional points that are candidate interactions with middleware. The Clickable-versions link shows several highlighted cylinders that represent external data storers, which middleware provides access to. If you click on the Identity Provider cylinder, you will be taken to a page detailing the Authentication Service API. This provides a description of the domain and object models. Here, the user is authenticated within the mailing list application, and you can view the potential data storage for the AuthN service, as well as the output. The demo response query is the label for the input from the mailing list application to the middleware service - and the application receives this output.

Also within the Clickable-Versions link, you can click on the Attribute Authority cylinder. You will view an Attribute Fetch Service page, where the domain model shows how the application gathers information about the user. The relationship between the application and middleware exists when the application requests attributes about a specific person. Looking at the Domain Model from the Our Models page, there are explanations of the symbols, then a model of the Check eMail Message Function. The column to the left does not imply these steps to be done in this order, but it provides a description of the different steps within the process, from an application view - potential Middleware options are identified here.

It might be helpful to the VidMid-VC group to take those documents that were submitted to ITU, and put them into diagram form, that would detail the message going between the endpoint and the gatekeeper, as well as between endpoints. Once some of our work is put into pictures, the Group will have a more productive design call. Use cases would also provide real examples of how the end user would be impacted, as opposed to the infrastructure. [AI] {Nadim} will send email to the {VidMid-VC} mailing list with use case scenarios and infrastructure pieces - regarding work that has been submitted to ITU - in the form of diagrams, to convey pictorially the aims of federated videoconferencing.

As there are others interested in federated video conferencing, perhaps the Group should look towards involving interested parties, such as the I2 MedMid WG <http://middleware.internet2.edu/medmid/>.

The next VidMid-VC call will take place on Monday, April 4, 2005 at 11am ET.