Presence and IntComm WG

["Ben Chinowsky" <>]

*Action Items as of November 3*

[ACTION] Jeremy will ask Deke if he still wants to work on the UA.
[ACTION] Jeremy will outline a high-level paper on the PIC WG's experiences 
and
lessons learned.
[ACTION] Ben T. will write a short document describing the motivation for the
paths-in-the-snow approach to PIC development.
[ACTION] By mid-November, Candace will produce an outline of the features that
Jamey has added to SER.
[ACTION] Jamey will send the group a note clarifying what code belongs to HP 
and
what's open source.
[ACTION] Jeremy will coordinate the production of a functional description of 
a
3G UA; all will send their thoughts on this to the PIC list.
[ACTION] Jamey will update the interface requirements document.
[ACTION] Jeremy will ask Paul Love to schedule a PIC plenary session at the 
Salt
Lake City Joint Techs.
[ACTION] All will send Jamey their thoughts on how HP should proceed with the
skiffs.

*Attendees*

Jeremy George (chair) - Yale
Dennis Baron - MIT
Joe Rork - Ford
Jamey Hicks - HP
Ben Chinowsky (scribe) - Internet2

The group discussed developments at VON.
- Jeremy and Joe were impressed by Microsoft's Istanbul UA; see
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/oct04/10-19NewRTCollabClientPR.asp
- Jeremy observed that it seems like presence has gone mainstream. Joe 
suggested
that this is more true for interest in the idea of presence, than it is for
technical understanding or applications of presence.
- While the group agreed that PIC's attendance at VON had been useful, Dennis
suggested that we need to describe and market our session at VON better in the
future. Joe suggested an approach based on the idea that Internet2's
constituency is made up of future customers of VON attendees, and there was
general agreement.
- Based on FCC chair Powell's presentation at VON, the group was optimistic
about his understanding of the issues around VoIP and PIC.

The group reviewed action items:

[ACTION] Jeremy will ask Deke if he still wants to work on the UA.
- Still to do.

[ACTION] Jeremy will outline a high-level paper on the PIC WG's experiences 
and
lessons learned.
- Still to do; Jeremy expects this to take a while.

[ACTION] Ben T. will write a short document describing the motivation for the
paths-in-the-snow approach to PIC development.
- Still to do.

[ACTION] Jamey will update the SER readme file.
- Done.

[ACTION] By mid-November, Candace will produce an outline of the features that
Jamey has added to SER.
- Still to do.

[ACTION] Jamey will send the group a note clarifying what code belongs to HP 
and
what's open source.
- Still to do.

Jeremy noted Jiri Kuthan's view that a non-IPR-encumbered, open-source UA is 
the
main thing now needed in the presence area. This means that PIC needs to 
produce
a high-level, functional description of what such a third-generation UA would
do. [ACTION] Jeremy will coordinate the production of a functional description
of a 3G UA; all will send their thoughts on this to the PIC list. In 
particular,
this document needs to 1) address what devices this UA needs to run on -- 
e.g.,
PDA's? cell phones? -- and 2) keep it realistic with respect to 
implementation.
This document will be separate from the interface requirements document.
[ACTION] Jamey will update the interface requirements document.

Paul Love has asked Jeremy if PIC wants to have a WG meeting at the February
Joint Techs in Salt Lake City. The group agreed that it would be better to do 
a
plenary session. [ACTION] Jeremy will ask Paul Love to schedule a PIC plenary
session at the Salt Lake City Joint Techs.

The group discussed plans for future PIC trials; the next will probably be at
the Spring Internet2 Member Meeting (May 2-4 in Arlington, Virginia). Joe is
continuing to look into UAs, and will be experimenting more with Session in 
the
near future. Joe also noted his continued interest in a more packaged version 
of
the PIC trial.

Jamey noted that HP is considering making the skiffs into a product
and/or open-sourcing the skiff code. Jamey noted that skiffs are built from
off-the-shelf hardware, so making them in large numbers would be fairly cheap
(expected retail of about $300) and easy, as would adapting the code to use 
new
wireless protocols and devices. With a little more work, Jamey thinks the 
skiff
code could be made to run on a Linksys access point, which only costs around 
$50
or $100. [ACTION] All will send Jamey their thoughts on how HP should proceed
with the skiffs.