A Management System for Online Presentations at Meetings · K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 2 Motivation Daily tasks at research institutes Preparing

1

A Management SystemA Management System

for Online Presentationsfor Online Presentations

at Meetingsat Meetings

Krzysztof Wrona (ZEUS)DESY Hamburg

22 April, 2002

K.Wrona Management system for online presentation at meetings 2

Motivation

Daily tasks at research institutesPreparing 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?


What Is the Talk About?

This talk does not cover

Video-streaming in itself

Video-conferencing


Meeting organizer prepares agenda -> webSpeaker prepares talk (>80% electronically)Speaker prints talkSpeaker carries transparencies to auditorium & gives presentationScientific secretaries collect slides or paper copy

Scan slides or paper copyOr: accept promise of speaker to send electronic version [in case he does not forget]

Meeting organizer stores electronic documents, places links ontoweb page etc

Completion typically several weeks after meeting

Classical Collaboration Meeting Style (E.G. ZEUS)


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

Classical Meeting Style: Problems

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)

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 length0.3 EUR per page times rehearsal factor

Poor quality of foil overhead projection by today’s standardsStrong geometrical distortionProblems with dense slides, photographs etc

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

Video stream quality does not allow to read all details on a slide


Classical Meeting Style: Problems

Do we like this?


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


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 continuousrescanning

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


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


Classical Conference (Notebook-based) -Cont’d

After go-ahead from chairperson, speaker experiments how to Activate his monitor outletAvoid switching off his/her own screen accidentallyAdjust the resolution to that of the beamerDisable the screen saverRecover his/her notebook from energy-saving modeReboot his/her device if neededFind 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 isThe bright side: execs can show off their brand-new mobile P4 notebookThe not-so-bright side: students & young post-docs may not have their own


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 emails 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


Classical Conference -Cont’d

Problems:Much work for organizing bodies

No last-minute changes

This is usually accepted for a big conference

Less acceptable for a collaboration meeting

Unacceptable for weekly work meetings

�Advantages:� High quality of displayed slides

� Organizers have control over hardware used for presentation

� Access to network

� Easier to create an archive


General Analysis: Collaborative Meeting

1. Presentationa) Excellent reproduction for hundreds of listeners

b) Access to remote resources in auditorium

c) Simple interface for manager, speaker and meeting participant

2. Remote participationa) 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. Archivinga) Simple and automatic archiving procedure



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


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


Maybe the information has to be protected

Authentication

Authorization

Tools

Dynamic HTML pagesInterface for a manager and speakerScripting language

Where should the informtion be stored?

database

Web server

Encryption


disk

SSL

WEB SERVER

APACHE

PHP

MySQL

WEB SERVER

Integration of the Components

Web browser

SSL connection is establishedInformation from the HTML form is posted to APACHE web serverPHP script processes the information:

it may read record(s) from databaseit may insert or delete records in databaseit may save a file which is being uploaded and update record.


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

Maintainer

Speaker

Meeting participant

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

Updates video links

Creates archive - static copy

makes a backup


Security Issues

Managerstrong authenticationfull access to databaseonly few persons using this mode

Speakerstrong authenticationPersonal passwordMany speakersUpdate of selected records in databaseWrite access to a disk

Meeting participantauthenticationcommon passwordcan only display informationfrom disk & database Maintainer

strong authenticationRead/write access to disk/database


Speaker Level of ProtectionStandard 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” conferencesGenerated user id

“quota” like system

Password established by speaker upon the registration

Privileges for the speaker assigned by manager

For small, weekly meetingsSystem registry, generated id or common password

Possible but

not implemented

in present system


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

http://www-ca.desy.de/


Manager prepares an agenda using comfortable web formsSpeaker prepares her/his talkSpeaker submit slides

Opens a browserAuthenticates to the systemUploads talk (file)Only speaker is involved, can be done at any time before the talkImmediately after uploading the slides are available for other participants

In auditorium speaker shows slidesDocuments accessible through orderly placed links on web pageThe same hardware is used for all presentationsNo need to reconnect notebooksConnection to internetPossibility of using external resources

How Does It Work?


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


Manager Mode


Manager View - cont’d


Main Speaker View


Upload Form


Slides Show


Online Presentation

https://www-zeus.desy.de/meetings/index.php


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)


Size of uploaded documents


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


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?Email

Telephone line

Chat

VC equipment

different profiles for conferences, collaboration and weekly meeting

registration for a meeting


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


Why Not...

ZEMS = ZEUS electronic meeting management system

D DESY


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