Coral Reef Videoconference #1

[NOAA's CHAMP]

Greetings, Fellow Coral-Listers!

	Have you ever wanted to meet that person on the other side of the
globe who always asks those interesting questions or comes up with that
great insight during discussions on coral-list?  Or maybe you have always
been impressed at the wisdom or wit of a particular colleague whom you
have never met, and would like to meet, or maybe just see what they look
like!  Or maybe you'd just like to converse and meet with those colleagues
who are primarily interested in your particular plight to save the reefs
near your island.  This may be your chance!  Videoconferencing has become
more affordable and is beginning to spread in popularity.  In fact some
videoconferencing software is freeware (see below).  Also, you can
conference without the video or the audio, i.e., just conduct online chat
sessions or work on documents (even using commercial software on your
end).

	With this message we are calling for a "get acquainted"
videoconference so that those of you who are interested can "chat" and get
to know one another over the Internet.  This is an opportunity to foster
greater communications among coral reef researchers and to facilitate
real-time collaboration (through "whiteboarding") on projects and
documents.  Although this first meeting is designed to get acquainted with
other researchers and the technology, we anticipate that future
collaborations may spring from this for the purpose of regional
discussions or specialty topics (e.g., the Pacific Basin, spawning,
diseases, pollution, etc.).  Drop us a line at coral at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
if you are interested in attending this conference.  If there is little
interest, or if nothing further develops, well, at least you'll know the
technology for your own use later on (i.e., save this message!).  If a LOT
of interest develops, I'll set up a separate listserver, coral-vc, for
communications on this topic alone, so as not to compromise the usual
coral-list discussions.

	 Here are some links and facts to help you get you started on
learning the technology before the Conference:

Resource for downloading CU-SeeMe v1.0 (developed by Cornell University)
freeware, a lot of information, and an evaluation on whether to use
version 3.1.2 or 4.0 (v3.1.2 and earlier versions work for the Macintosh,
as well as Windows):

	http://www.cu-seeme.net

Home of White Pine Software, the people who sell the commercial version of
CU-SeeMe (lots of good information, and good prices)::

	http://www.wpine.com

MicroSoft Netmeeting (freeware, Windows only)::

	http://www.microsoft.com/netmeeting

And of course you can always do a search on your browser to find out more.

	By the way, please note that depending upon all kinds of things,
including your connection to the Internet, the quality and settings of
your camera, microphone and speaker, you may not get a good connection.
It takes a little time to learn this stuff, but it is easy to get started.
You may not get the video or audio right the first time, but you can still
"chat" by typing to a common screen online.

	Since setting up the "reflectors" for videoconferencing is
expensive, we will meet at a public reflector to start off.  If greater
interest is generated, we will seek funding to support a reflector with
greater capacity and specialty topic conference IDs.  Tentatively, our
meeting place (reflector) will be physiol.indstate.edu (Indiana State
University) on June 23, 1999, off and on, from 1200 hrs GMT to 1800 hrs
GMT.  If these times are not convenient, let us know.  There are three
conferences at that site: #1 is General, #2 is Modem Users, and #3 is for
high speed users (T1, etc.).  Conference ID 4 is a self-reflector so you
can see what you look like remotely.  If that reflector is not available,
try these instead:  reflector.edi.gatech.edu (Georgia Institute of
Technology) or kingfisher.cms.shu.ac.uk (Sheffield Hallam University).
For specialty topics, we may meet under special multicast conferencing or
point-to-point arrangements in which a reflector is not necessary (drop us
a line if you're interested in specialty groups, point-to-point, etc.).
Your feedback is most welcome.

	See you there!


	Cheers,

	Jim Hendee & Your NOAA Coral Colleagues
	NOAA's Coral Health and Monitoring Program