school of information university of michigan the connection project: supporting collaboration at the...
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SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
The Connection Project: Supporting Collaboration at The University of Michigan with High Quality Video Links
Erik C. HoferSchool of InformationUniversity of Michigan
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
http://www.nees.org/research/facilities/index.php
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
http://fusiongrid.org
http://www.psfc.mit.edu/research/alcator/intro/info.html
http://nbirn.net
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Problem: My work looks nothing like this.
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
http://doc.cern.ch//archive/electronic/cern/others/PHO/photo-ge/0102032.jpeg
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Common collaborations
• Work very closely with a small number of people
• While the composition may change over time, the location of collaborations stays pretty constant– Between two departments– Between two research groups at
different universities
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
The Connection Project
• A project to leverage cyberinfrastructure in supporting the real-time collaboration needs of groups
• Emphasis on high-quality, high-bandwidth technologies
• Emphasis on connecting established sites together
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Today’s talk
• Who needs this kind of stuff? • Why a new solution?• What we’ve done• How did it work?• Where are we going next
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
The School of Information is a natural laboratory for collaborative technology
experimentation.
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SI North I, II
West Hall
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Source:Festinger, L, Schachter, S. and Back, K.W.. (1950). Social pressures in informal groups: a study of human factors in housing. Stanford University Press.
Source: Allen, T.J. (1977). Managing the flow of technology in organizations. MIT Press.
Source: Galegher,Kraut, & Egido (1990). Intellectual teamwork: Social and technological foundations of cooperative work, p. 160. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Personnel distributionCentral Campus North Campus
Faculty 20 14
Staff 27 20
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Solutions
• Transportation– University, public and
personal
• Collocation of groups• Hotel space• Commodity video
conferencing facilities
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Room use
• Meeting rooms used primarily for formal meetings
• More used by faculty than by staff– Staff opted to travel
• When not connected to remote sites, rooms frequently used for long work sessions
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Do we need new solution?
• Is video quality sufficient to support large groups of people?
• Are the ergonomics correct in existing setups?
• Are training materials sufficient to encourage use?
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Do we need new solution?
• Is video quality sufficient to support large groups of people?
• Are the ergonomics correct in existing setups?
• Are training materials sufficient to encourage use?
• (Answers: Yes, No, No, No)
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Video quality - is 384k enough?
Clips from Video Quality Experts Group, www.vqeg.org
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Video quality - is 384k enough?
Clips from Video Quality Experts Group, www.vqeg.org
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
West Hall SI North
Ergonomics
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
User support
• As in many facilities, users were left with a set of instructions on the table to operate the system
• The instructions were good, but generally weren’t read
• Administrative assistants became the first line of support because they were closest
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
We wanted to do better.
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Design Goals
• Improve video and audio quality– Leverage investments in campus
infrastructure
• Support high interactivity between sites– Natural interaction– High degree of gaze awareness
• Improve usability of the rooms• Also wanted to understand the impact
of the system upgrades
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Facility Upgrade
• Dual 50” NEC Plasma Displays• Polycom VSX 7000• DVTS (beta trials)• NCast Telepresenter G2
• Table replacement
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
West Hall SI North
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Documentation and training• Documentation process centered
around user testing– Many iterations with technical and non-
technical users
• Produced full-color print documentation• Produced a training video• Conducted training sessions with key
faculty and staff members
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Some findings
• Users report that the improved audio and video quality makes the rooms a viable alternative to travel between sites.
• Users report that DVTS feels more “live” and the additional quality makes the experience more compelling
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Some findings
• Despite a nearly equal split of personnel between sites, meetings typically don’t include an equal number of people at each site– Design implications for future
facilities
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Some challenges ahead
• Organizational challenges still play a major role– Scheduling / character of use– Access issues
• While bandwidth is over-provisioned now, it’s unclear how much we can scale up use of DVTS in the future as other high bandwidth technologies come online
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Work in progress
• Production integration of DVTS• HD Experimentation• Integration with network monitoring
technologies to support quality prediction and a dynamic capability set
• Social network analysis of organizational impact
• Controlled studies of video quality
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Acknowledgements
• Project Director: Tom Finholt• Graduate Students: Emilee Rader,
Rasika Ramesh• UROP Students: Turquoise Archie,
Pritpaul Mahal, Jason Lin
• This project is funded by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
• More info at: www.connectionproject.org
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