This panel is an experiment in applying the technology it discusses. The two co-chairs and three of the eight panelists will be sitting in the conference hall in Paris, but the remaining 5 panelists will attempt to participate using MBONE-based teleconferencing tools over the Internet from several sites in California. If the MBONE performs as hoped, remote panelists will be able to not only receive audio and video from the conference center, but to transmit audio/video back to Paris. As a further experiment, we will be using a new system for multicasting Web documents, and will be using this to transmit the Web displays that are being projected in the conference room to remote participants. As a technical backup, we will have in place a telephone conference call to the remote panelists, to allow audio exchanges.
As with telephony in its early days, Internet-based teleconferencing technology lacks a set of widely shared social conventions that would integrate it smoothly into current modes of behavior at conferences. My tasks as co-chair will be to ensure that the panel stays on schedule, that the panel collectively addresses the promised topics (there is much interesting material to discuss), and that we experience smooth interactions between remote and local panelists, and between all panelists and remote and local attendees.
On-Line Proceedings: SIGWAIS/SIGNIDR III National Library of Medicine (12 November 1993) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/publications/proceedings/signidr_III/top_page.html
This was the first event to be multicasted from NLM. Experience gained at this meeting was used to help multicast from the Second International World-Wide Web Conference.
R. P. C. Rodgers, J. Aronson, and J. Ng. Report: Multicasting from the Second International World-Wide Web Conference 1994: Mosaic and the Web (Chicago, 17-20 October 1994). http://www.nlm.nih.gov/publications/staff_publications/rodgers/multicasting_Chicago_94/report.html
The Chicago Web Conference was the first International Web Conference to be sent out via the MBONE.