“ The World’s Your Office:” Realtime Collaboration Internet Collaboration Tools LIFT Forum Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah Health Sciences Center

 Sharon Dennis  Claire Hamasu  Susan Roberts

Overview  Videoconferencing  Voice over IP (VoIP)  Instant messaging  Group software

The World’s Your Office: Videoconferencing Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library University of Utah Health Sciences Center

Videoconferencing Overview  Access Grid demo  What is videoconferencing?  Uses for videoconferencing  Hardware and software  VRVS demo

What is Videoconferencing?  Real time interaction (seeing and hearing) with other people located with one or more remote sites  Components: –Viewing equipment (computer or TV) –Camera(s) –Microphone(s) –Network or phone line

Does It Work?  To paraphrase Mae West:  “When it’s good, it’s very, very good.”

Uses for Videoconferencing  Collaboration with colleagues  Education –Distance learning –Collaborative learning with 2 groups of students at different schools  Telehealth –Patient care –Family support

Types of Videoconferencing  Multi-point –Multiple sites  Point-to-point –One-to-one communication

Hardware Spectrum WebCam attached to a computer $50 Polycom ViaVideo attached to a computer $500 Polycom ViewStation Standalone unit $5000

Software – Single-Point Systems Chat programs Yahoo, MSN, iChat NetMeeting Polycom proprietary software Both users have Polycoms

Software – Multi-Point Systems: Access Grid  Internet II videoconferencing system

Software – Multi-Point Systems: Breeze Macromedia Breeze Commercial product Users access from any Web browser Audio, video, application sharing, collaboration tools

Software – Multi-Point Systems: Bridge Telehealth Bridge Schedule with telehealth department

Software – Multi-Point Systems: VRVS VRVS Virtual Room Video- conferencing System Free Audio, video, application sharing

Demonstrations  VRVS

Resources  Videoconference Cookbook  Dale Alverson’s talk at InfoFair  See handouts at: collaboration/handouts.html

The World’s Your Office: VoIP Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library University of Utah Health Sciences Center

What is VoIP?  Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) –aka Internet Voice, Internet Telephony –a category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls instead of a regular (or analog) phone line.* * VoIP converts the voice signal from your telephone or headset into a digital signal that travels over the internet then converts it back at the other end so you can speak to anyone with a regular phone number.

What kind of equipment do you need?  A broadband (high speed Internet) connection is required. –This can be through a cable modem, or high speed services such as DSL or a local area network.  Voice is sent via a: –Microphone attached to your computer and send your voice through a cable modem –or a phone connected directly to a telephone adaptor.

Types of VoIP services  Skype: PC to PC or Phone Anywhere (Skype is for calling other people on their computers or phones) Just need to register with Skype and you can call other Skype registered users online

VoIP: Skype features  Use with a microphone headset  Can search for users online  IM feature available  Conferencing calls (limit 5 participants)  SkypeOut: Additional service that lets you call traditional landlines or mobile phones anywhere in the world, but with a charge (which is minimal <4 cents/minute)

VoIP: Skype features – cont’d  Supported platforms: Windows Mac OS X Linux Pocket PC

Demo…  Skype: –

The World’s Your Office Instant Messaging We use the Internet as our telephone with voice over IP (VoIP) software. Our “telephone” can handle conference calls of up to 4 people. What’s an office without a water cooler area for shooting the breeze? Using our instant messaging software we’ll chat socially before going back and tackling the major issues facing our region. Our instant messaging software plays many roles. It functions as an indicator of presence. It lets everyone know who’s at their computer, who’s at work but not in the “office” and who’s not available. We use the Internet as our telephone with voice over IP (VoIP) software. Our “telephone” can handle conference calls of up to 4 people. What’s an office without a water cooler area for shooting the breeze? Using our instant messaging software we’ll chat socially before going back and tackling the major issues facing our region. Our instant messaging software plays many roles. It functions as an indicator of presence. It lets everyone know who’s at their computer, who’s at work but not in the “office” and who’s not available.

Instant Messaging – What is it?  Software –Two people communicate via text messaging –Real time  Developer –Mirablis –1996 –ICQ (I seek you)

Instant Messaging—Who offers it?  AIM  MSN messenger.msn.com/ messenger.msn.com/  Yahoo messenger.yahoo.com/ messenger.yahoo.com/

Instant Messaging  Software—free downloads  Hardware—any system  More immediate than  Presence!

Cross Group Messaging  Trillian

Added Features  Conference Chats  Webcam  Voice  File transfer  Games  Mobile IM

The World’s Your Office Group Software

Group Software-What is it?  Web based communication technologies that allow interaction of team members as they perform interdependent tasks to accomplish a common purpose — Charles Steinfield, Michigan State University  Asynchronous (calendars, shared files etc) and synchronous (Videoconf, whiteboard etc)

Is it for my Group?  Are members of your project team separated by time and space?  Do you have a core group –actual work team, plus other stakeholders, such a department head or funding agency who wants to occasionally monitor the project’s progress?  Is your team’s volume overwhelming? Need a private place to hash out questions and answers without playing catch up on ?

Ideal Infrastructure  supports synchronous and asynchronous interactions  provides shared workspaces and archives  supplies needed awareness information (participant availability and activity)  enhances distributed activity –structured workflow - no overwriting –decision support - who “said” what –project management-who is responsible, deadlines

Products  IBM Lotus Team Workplace (Quickplace) IBM Lotus Team Workplace  Yahoo Groups  WebCollab WebCollab –Open Source  Microsoft SharePoint

Cost  License –Lotus Team Workplace (incl year maintenance) $12,735 Unlimited number of users –SharePoint 5-25 User/device $1,000-4,000 With external users up to $8000 –Free

Demo: Lotus Workplace (Quickplace)  Member Access  Rooms  Creating/Importing documents –Workflow –Forms  Discussion  Calendar  Project management

WebCollab  Project management oriented  Tasks with deadlines  Calendar

About Yahoo! Groups: features  Some features: –Messages –Calendar –Database- contact lists, etc. –Photo albums –Poll –Search Archive –Owner vs. Moderator –News Feeds  Demo:

Our Experience  Beneficial only when all team members use it  Training-in context  Access –equal vs hierarchical  Room vs Folder vs Page

Summary  Choice of collaboration tools –Integrated Stand alone –High costShareware/Open Source  Improving constantly  Virtual approaches reality –Distance –Cost

For more info….  See handouts at: