SIP in higher education

[(Dennis Baron)]

Sorry for the late notice - there will be no call today.  I'll try to
have one more call before the holidays.  As always please send me any
agenda topics.

Minutes from the last call follow.  (Thanks Jeff!)  Let me know if
there are any corrections.

                Dennis

--------

   SIP.edu Conference Call November 18, 2004

   *Attendees:*
   Armin Brunner, Swiss Technical University
   Dennis Baron, MIT
   Matt Valenzisi, North Carolina State
   Doug Walston, Cisco Systems
   Tim Bastian, Penn State
   Richard Machida, University of Alaska
   Jeremy George, Yale University
   Garrett Yoshimi, University Hawaii
   Yul Pyun, University of Hawaii
   Doug Foster, Cisco Systems
   Mike Van Norman, UCLA
   Ben Teitelbaum, Internet2
   Jeff Kuure, Internet2 (scribe)

   *Discussion*
   Today's call focuses on SIP deployment - questions, plans, and reports
   from people putting ideas into practice. Richard mentions the
   University of Alaska's recent SIP project in support of a research
   station. Matt at NC State will be receiving equipment soon and will
   have questions regarding setup and configuration. The majority of the
   call is devoted to Armin discussing the SIP system at the Swiss
   Technical University - an approximately 12,000 student / 7,000 staff
   and faculty institution in Zurich. The goal of the implementation is
   to make it easier for students to work from home - the school is in
   the city, and space for labs is a genuine concern; SIP allows the
   campus to be extended to where the people are. The goal is to allow
   IM, video, and access for alumni to services rather than to replace
   the desktop phone system. SIP allows experimentation, and this is the
   first institution outside the US with such an setup. The project will
   be in beta by January. Production with all features will follow by
   April. Notes are available on the SIP.edu site
          http://voip.internet2.edu/SIP.edu
   Right now IM is the missing link, as existing clients have failed to
   meet all expectations.  Many students already have an IM affiliation,
   and converting these users to a new client would be difficult - but
   this isn't the goal, SIP would just add another option. Video
   currently works, but the quality suffers if someone is behind a NAT
   device. Currently, the university is not looking to bundle long
   distance service, as they do no billing now. The SIP numbers, however,
   should be reachable from everywhere and be able to reach everything.
   Follow-up discussions centered around discussion of proxy server
   license issues, as well as questions regarding any impending low-end
   Cisco SIP phones.

   Next call will be Thursday, December 2 2004, 2:00 pm ET.

--------