Difference between revisions of "Virtual Conferences"
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** Speaker may give the same presentation multiple times to deal with time zones, or at least have multiple interaction sessions | ** Speaker may give the same presentation multiple times to deal with time zones, or at least have multiple interaction sessions | ||
* ''1-1 informal hallway conversations leveraging past history of interaction or creating new connections'' | * ''1-1 informal hallway conversations leveraging past history of interaction or creating new connections'' | ||
| − | ** Ability to have one-on-ones | + | ** Ability to have one-on-ones |
* ''Multiple synchronous small group interaction – e.g. a demo/poster session'' | * ''Multiple synchronous small group interaction – e.g. a demo/poster session'' | ||
** Ability to hop around, like a poster session | ** Ability to hop around, like a poster session | ||
Revision as of 15:00, 16 March 2020
Contents
Virtual Conferences
This is a collection of links and information I've put together about virtual conferences.
Why
- To reduce carbon footprint
- To deal with viral pandemics
How
- A very good collection of resources on reducing conference travel
- A how-to guide from UCSB for a specific kind of virtual conference (see below for variations)
Who
- Here's a list
- A nearly carbon-neutral conference, 2016 on "The world in 2050"
- ICANN
- PAM 2020
- ASPLOS
In more detail
Here are some ideas that I came up with some time back with considerable input from Robbert van Renesse
Interaction modes
Conferences support multiple interaction modes, which may need different solutions depending on the conference size
- 1-many stored video
- Archival conference record
- 1-many live video in parallel with many-many text-oriented discussions on the ongoing presentation
- Plenary presentations
- Speaker may give the same presentation multiple times to deal with time zones, or at least have multiple interaction sessions
- 1-1 informal hallway conversations leveraging past history of interaction or creating new connections
- Ability to have one-on-ones
- Multiple synchronous small group interaction – e.g. a demo/poster session
- Ability to hop around, like a poster session
- Ability to see demos being done, with VNC-like control
- Find out which demo is popular
- Need a whiteboard, leave a message for others
- Schedule presentations of the poster at a particular time
- Asynchronous interaction
- Like a MOOC lecture with multiple flipped classroom, on EdX
Tools/Resources available today
- 1-many live video in parallel with many-many text-oriented discussions on the ongoing presentation
- Tools include Livestream and ConcertWindow
- Remote presenters can record videos for presentation at the conference and answer questions on the phone or in a text-based chat room
- Trialed at SIGCOMM 2016 and worked well
- 1-1 informal hallway conversations
- Skype/Zoom/ Openvidu for audio/video communication and ‘rooms’
- Browser-based Virtual Reality from Mozilla
- Shared whiteboard - Whiteboard Fox
- Remote participation robots? Tried at CHI with limited success and great cost
- Herring, Susan C. "Telepresence robots for academics." Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 50.1 (2013): 1-4.
- Poster and demos
- Maybe can use VNC for remote demos
- Asynchronous interaction
Technical and sociological issues that need to be addressed by research
- How to achieve high quality of the video/audio?
- How to re-create informality?
- Can poke head into someone’s office, but can’t do that on skype
- The barrier to entry to interrupt someone is high because people are diffident about interruption
- Conferences reduce options and hence force interaction
- How to create conditions that support attendance? In a real conference there is no need to worry about food, where to rest
- Make a commitment, perhaps in writing
- Need to create a social headroom
- How to convey body language and non-verbal cues?
- How to integrate components properly?
An alternative
- Multiple hub idea: live gatherings at multiple sites linked together
- Also provides support for an in-person experience but with reduced travel
- Can be all time shifted, with presentation speakers available
- Can rely on dedicated rooms with microphone arrays
- [Collective Intelligence 2020 https://ci2020.weebly.com/]