SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN The Connection Project: Supporting Collaboration at The University of Michigan with High Quality Video Links

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


http://www.nees.org/research/facilities/index.php



http://fusiongrid.org

http://www.psfc.mit.edu/research/alcator/intro/info.html

http://nbirn.net


Problem: My work looks nothing like this.


http://doc.cern.ch//archive/electronic/cern/others/PHO/photo-ge/0102032.jpeg


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


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


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


The School of Information is a natural laboratory for collaborative technology

experimentation.


SI North I, II

West Hall


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.


Personnel distributionCentral Campus North Campus

Faculty 20 14

Staff 27 20


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.


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


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?


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)


Video quality - is 384k enough?

Clips from Video Quality Experts Group, www.vqeg.org


Video quality - is 384k enough?

Clips from Video Quality Experts Group, www.vqeg.org


West Hall SI North

Ergonomics


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


We wanted to do better.


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


Facility Upgrade

• Dual 50” NEC Plasma Displays• Polycom VSX 7000• DVTS (beta trials)• NCast Telepresenter G2

• Table replacement


West Hall SI North


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


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


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


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



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


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


• More info at: www.connectionproject.org

Documents

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN The Connection Project: Supporting Collaboration at The University of Michigan with High Quality Video Links