A Management System for Online Presentations at Meetings. Krzysztof Wrona (ZEUS) DESY Hamburg

Transcription

1 A Management System for Online Presentations at Meetings Krzysztof Wrona (ZEUS) DESY Hamburg 22 April,

2 Motivation Daily tasks at research institutes Preparing and improving an experiment Collecting and analysing data Finding an interesting results Showing the results Electronic slides presentation became a standard What does the standard really mean? How does it look in our community? How much time, people resources do we need in order to organize and prepare for a meeting? Can we do it easier, faster? Can we do it better? K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 2

3 What Is the Talk About? This talk does not cover Video-streaming in itself Video-conferencing K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 3

4 Classical Collaboration Meeting Style (E.G. ZEUS) Meeting organizer prepares agenda -> web Speaker prepares talk (>80% electronically) Speaker prints talk Speaker carries transparencies to auditorium & gives presentation Scientific secretaries collect slides or paper copy Scan slides or paper copy Or: accept promise of speaker to send electronic version [in case he does not forget] Meeting organizer stores electronic documents, places links onto web page etc Completion typically several weeks after meeting K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 4

5 Classical Meeting Style: Problems Availability of printers has been a last-minute stress factor (though the printer infrastructure at DESY has clearly improved) Availability of printers has been a last-minute stress factor (though the printer infrastructure at DESY has clearly improved) Printer working? Paper & toner OK? Queue length 0.3 EUR per page times rehearsal factor Poor quality of foil overhead projection by today s standards Strong geometrical distortion Problems with dense slides, photographs etc Printer working? Paper & toner OK? Queue length 0.3 EUR per page times rehearsal factor Poor quality of foil overhead projection by today s standards Strong geometrical distortion Problems with dense slides, photographs etc Video stream quality does not allow to read all details on a slide Summary speakers have to approach each individual speaker for material Much work for the session secretaries (collecting, copying, scanning) Electronic archive depends on voluntary activity of speaker But speakers tend to relax after their talk is given Much work for the meeting manager (editing web pages etc) K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 5

6 Classical Meeting Style: Problems Do we like this? K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 6

7 Variation of Classical Meeting Style: the PreCa One additional problem is the integration of overhead and beamer projections The presentation scanner (PreCa) might overcome this problem Also paper/foil presentations go over the beamer Avoids typical problems of overhead projection K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 7

8 PreCa In practice this scheme has earned much criticism in ZEUS Some speakers keep tugging & pushing at their transparencies out of nervousness all the time, which confuses listeners by continuous rescanning Alternating paper & foil presentation need appropriate switching from front to back lighting --> can go wrong & will go wrong Poor rendering of very dense transparencies No animation possible The odd speaker who brings his talk in portrait format has a serious problem No automated archive procedure No solution for summary speaker That was a starting point of discussion K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 8

9 Classical Conference (Notebook-based) Speaker prepares his talk using notebook Speaker carries his notebook along to the auditorium After previous talk, previous speaker s notebook is unplugged, current speaker s notebook is plugged to the beamer Usually there is no network connection Better quality of displayed slides, animations Similar problems for summary speaker Still no automatic archive procedure K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 9

10 Classical Conference (Notebook-based) -Cont d After go-ahead from chairperson, speaker experiments how to Activate his monitor outlet Avoid switching off his/her own screen accidentally Adjust the resolution to that of the beamer Disable the screen saver Recover his/her notebook from energy-saving mode Reboot his/her device if needed Find his/her AC adapter when battery runs low Auditorium appreciates the amusement, admires the icons on the speaker s desktop, starts discussion about which brand, operating system, presentation software to use instead, everybody is having fun... Unless the agenda is very busy, which it usually is The bright side: execs can show off their brand-new mobile P4 notebook The not-so-bright side: students & young post-docs may not have their own K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 10

11 Classical Conference (Centrally Managed Documents) Speaker registers via a web form Conference organizer assigns speaker an id for his talk (e.g. A320.5 ) Speaker ftp s or s his presentation using his id 1-2 weeks in advance Conference organizer Renames the files from talk.ppt to something sensible Copies files to final destination Prompts those who have forgotten to upload Prepares orderly agenda layout on a web page & links the talks K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 11

12 Problems: Classical Conference -Cont d Much work for organizing bodies No last-minute changes Advantages: ü High quality of displayed slides This is usually accepted for a big conference Less acceptable for a collaboration meeting Unacceptable for weekly work meetings ü Organizers have control over hardware used for presentation ü Access to network ü Easier to create an archive K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 12

13 General Analysis: Collaborative Meeting 1. Presentation a) Excellent reproduction for hundreds of listeners b) Access to remote resources in auditorium c) Simple interface for manager, speaker and meeting participant 2. Remote participation a) People at other labs who cannot attend the meeting in person b) Coexistence with video-streaming 3. Cross talk a) Summary speakers collect material from previous presentations 4. Archiving a) Simple and automatic archiving procedure K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 13

14 K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 14

15 Specific Requirements Details Permit speaker to show electronic slides: PowerPoint - ppt Portable document format - pdf Postscript - ps Simplify procedure for collecting documents Allow online access to materials outside meeting room Help to create an archive K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 15

16 Technology For the Solution System based on web technology Widely available Well known components - easy-to-operate Long experience running web server Access to external resources via web K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 16

17 Tools Web server Dynamic HTML pages Interface for a manager and speaker Scripting language Maybe the information has to be protected Authentication Authorization Encryption Where should the informtion be stored? database K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 17

18 Integration of the Components WEB SERVER Web browser SSL APACHE SSL connection is established Information from the HTML form is posted to APACHE web server PHP script processes the information: it may read record(s) from database it may insert or delete records in database it may save a file which is being uploaded and update record. disk PHP MySQL K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 18

19 System Structure Authenticates as manager Establishes a meeting Adds some general information Creates, updates, deletes session chairman, secretary, name, date, time, place Puts a presentation onto agenda (time,title) Assigns a speaker speaker name speaker id Manager Speaker Meeting participant Maintainer Updates video links Creates archive - static copy makes a backup Authenticates to the system with his personal password uploads slides via web Updates database Saves file on disk Authenticates to the system Displays meeting program Displays slides in auditorium Displays slides on desktop PC Watch an online video stream K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 19

20 Security Issues Manager strong authentication full access to database only few persons using this mode Meeting participant authentication common password can only display information from disk & database Speaker strong authentication Personal password Many speakers Update of selected records in database Write access to a disk Maintainer strong authentication Read/write access to disk/database K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 20

21 Speaker Level of Protection Standard system users registry for collaboration meeting speaker knows her/his user_id and password strong protection - SSL manager does not remember all usernames software must help manager to find a username manager type the full speaker s name software finds username candidates usually there is only one manager confirms the username still possibility to type username by hand For external and opened conferences Generated user id Possible but quota like system not implemented Password established by speaker upon the registration in present system Privileges for the speaker assigned by manager For small, weekly meetings System registry, generated id or common password K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 21

22 Certificate Infrastructure Certificate for a web server DFN, DESY-CA Browsers do not recognise DESY-CA by default There is a web page which explain how to make a browser aware of DESY-CA K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 22

23 How Does It Work? Manager prepares an agenda using comfortable web forms Speaker prepares her/his talk Speaker submit slides Opens a browser Authenticates to the system Uploads talk (file) Only speaker is involved, can be done at any time before the talk Immediately after uploading the slides are available for other participants In auditorium speaker shows slides Documents accessible through orderly placed links on web page The same hardware is used for all presentations No need to reconnect notebooks Connection to internet Possibility of using external resources K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 23

24 How Does It Work - cont d People on remote sites can view slides Coexistence with online video Displaying slides on desktop PC Better quality of displayed slides over internet Summary speaker can use all presentations to create her/his talk Slides available for all participants Can be downloaded Selected results or plots can be copied to summary presentation Manager create an archive Only some cosmetics modification necessary All documents in place Well defined directory structure automated procedure K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 24

25 Manager Mode K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 25

26 Manager View - cont d K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 26

27 Main Speaker View K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 27

28 Upload Form K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 28

29 Slides Show K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 29

30 Online Presentation K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 30

31 Experience: Feb-2002 ZEUS Week 62 talks in sessions covered by ZEMS (plenary + 1 parallel) All talks except 1 were uploaded to ZEMS server Formats submitted: Ppt 25 Pdf 3 Ps 34 No problems worth mentioning Occasionally portrait format -> reduced magnification or panning Meeting page on presentation needs refresh on last-minute submission In ps files, orientation is hard to control Some typical bullet-symbols do not convert well between Staroffice & PowerPoint one speaker could not submit file with the name: a name of the file.ppt - fixed bug General feedback from meeting participants very positive (speakers, listeners and people on remote sites) K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 31

32 Size of uploaded documents K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 32

33 Summary Standard way of organising meeting is not satisfactory Slow procedure for collecting documents Much work for organizer No support for remote participation Integrated, web based system has been developed Very good experience on the first challenge K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 33

34 Outlook Extensions under consideration: possibility of having few managers for one meeting - useful for parallel sessions delegation of privileges how to ask questions from remote sites? Telephone line Chat VC equipment different profiles for conferences, collaboration and weekly meeting registration for a meeting K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 34

35 Some More General Remarks New beamer in auditorium is a huge improvement Camera & mike equipment in auditorium are pretty good Unfortunately, no beamer & lectern PC installation in seminar rooms yet (SR4, SR3,...) No VC equipment in seminar rooms Existing VC rooms are often too small (<= 12 persons) Should have standard VC equipment in all public seminar rooms K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 35

36 Why Not... ZEMS = ZEUS electronic meeting management system D DESY K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 36

37 Summary Standard way of organising meeting is not satisfactory Slow procedure for collecting documents Much work for organizer No support for remote participation Integrated, web based system has been developed Very good experience on the first challenge K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 37