erik c. hofer school of information university of michigan

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

http://nbirn.net

http://fusiongrid.org/


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


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

erik c. hofer school of information university of michigan

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