Virtual Conferences

Virtual Conferences

This is a collection of links and information I've put together about virtual conferences.

Why

• To reduce carbon footprint
  • Environmental impacts of an international conference
  • Rethinking Conferences
  • High Flying Academics
• 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 with ‘heros’
• 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 stored video
  • Ed X and ACM DL can store video from conferences for replay

• 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
  • Slack

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
  • Effects of Internet-based multiple-site conferences on greenhouse gas emissions
• 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/]