Future improvements

There were several drawbacks to the virtual presentation, all of which can be reduced in future years with further experimentation:

• - The telephone link in the seminar room was unidirectional. This was intended as there was not time for questions in this session, and the use of the speakerphone in the later working group was successful. However, in the future it would be desirable to have a microphone that could pick up audience questions.

• - Although the telephone link worked well, it would become nearly prohibitive as an international link. Telephone charges to a number of African countries are $10-$12per minute, and can exceed $30per minute when placed from the African country to the U.S. Methods to circumvent the use of the telephone, and to fully rely on Internet participation in a conference electronically, would be highly desirable to allow the participation of groups in many countries simultaneously at a reasonable cost.

• - The sound provided by the phone adapter was not great. It appears that the gain differs between the line and the pickup in the handset, and can vary quite a bit, so there needs to be separate volume controls for (telephone) input and output to the sound system.

• A major drawback of the presentation was that it was held in a computer laboratory. This required the movement of conference participants from the main location of the conference, and significantly reduced participation due to the logistics involved. It proved technically much easier to have the virtual participation in this room, but it still required considerable efforts and technical skills in setting up.

  It would be desirable to find a way to have a similar virtual presentation using a PC or MacIntosh connected to a local network and to a video projector. This would allow such a virtual conference session in any conference room, and could become commonplace in an international conference such as this at the World Hunger Program. It would also be preferable to make this technically feasible to be set up by an experienced PC or MacIntosh computer user.

• - Full Internet access is still not available in many developing countries, and in almost no countries in sub- Saharan Africa. Even as the situation improves, access will still be highly skewed toward those with greater resources. In the short to medium term, Internet may increase rather than reduce international inequities.

• - Many of the delays that were experienced in using xmx were xmx's fault and will be dramatically improved in future releases. The new xmx also has facilities for interaction, so, for instance, conference participants could raise their hand ``virtually'', and the presenter would see that - without video - and could address them directly.