Presence and IntComm WG

["Ben Chinowsky" <>]

*Action Items as of October 19*

(high priority)
[ACTION] For discussion on the October 20 call, all will give some thought to
the problem of how to define federations in the context of integrated
communications.
[ACTION] Ben T. will update SER on PALS with the latest PIC-SER package.
[ACTION] Rodger and Candace will try to organize a call with CounterPath
sometime in the next few weeks.
[ACTION] For the next few conference calls, Rodger will recruit PIC-SER
participants to summarize their experiences.
[ACTION] Based on PIC-SER experiences, the group will evaluate what functions
(e.g. group chat) should be added to the next version of the package.
[ACTION] Jamey will see if there's a writeup of the HP work on Linux location
tracking technologies.
[ACTION] Candace will follow up with Mike on the presence-updates issue.
[ACTION] Dennis will send Steve a short description of the proposed topic for
Cullen Jennings' talk.

(medium priority)
[ACTION] Steve will try to schedule Cullen Jennings as a guest speaker
on one of the PIC conference calls.
[ACTION] Candace will add a Wiki document on strict vs. loose routing.

(low priority)
[ACTION] Candace and Jamey will initiate an email discussion of their proposal
to modify the SER PA module so it can do presence via SUBSCRIBE and NOTIFY, to
accommodate clients that don't do PUBLISH.
[ACTION] Jamey will enable eyeBeam to use presence info to decide
whether messages should go straight to voicemail.
[ACTION] Jamey will update the interface requirements document.
[ACTION] Jamey will continue working on the future of the skiffs, and solicit
opinions from PIC members as needed.
[ACTION] People will research skiff-like offerings from various companies:
- Dennis - Newbury
- Rodger - Airespace (now part of Cisco)
- Jeremy - Eckehau (via Walt Magnussen)
[ACTION] Candace will look into Tyler Johnson's H.350-enabled version of the
NIST client.
[ACTION] Ben T. will write a short document describing the motivation for the
paths-in-the-snow approach to PIC development.

*Attendees*

Rodger Will (chair) - Ford
Candace Holman - Harvard
Joe Rork - Ford
Ben Teitelbaum - Internet2
John Stier - Stony Brook
Ben Chinowsky (scribe) - Internet2

*Discussion*

Ben T. reported that he has put Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on PALS, backing up
the SQL database so we can re-create accounts later. [ACTION] Ben T. will
update SER on PALS with the latest PIC-SER package.

The group discussed possibilities for working with various companies:
- Rodger has talked to Eyeball Networks (http://www.eyeball.com/) about
PIC possibly participating in their beta testing. Eyeball is interested in
ensuring interoperability for both their client and their server. Eyeball
appears to be very similar to CounterPath (http://www.counterpath.com/ -- 
formerly known as Xten).
- Candace has been trying to get CounterPath involved in resolving the PIC-SER
presence updates problem. [ACTION] Rodger and Candace will try to organize a
call with CounterPath sometime in the next few weeks.
- Steve Kirk of Nortel is interested in working with PIC on server-to-server
interoperability; Ben T. is pursuing this.

There was also a more general discussion of how to get vendors to address the
concerns of the PIC WG. Ben T. stressed the importance of getting vendors to
appreciate the size of the university community as a market for their
products. John suggested that PIC focus on establishing a relationship with a
single vendor that would listen to and act on its concerns. Candace stressed
that it's very hard to get people to test clients if they have to pay for 
them.
John observed that PIC's involvement in testing could be of considerable value
to vendors; he suggested pitching this more aggressively, proposing deals
along the lines of "1000 free licenses for six months is the cost of our
participation."

Other vendor-specific items:
- Rodger has started playing with Gizmo (http://www.gizmoproject.com/); he 
likes
it so far.
- Candace is planning to attend an upcoming Burton telebriefing on Microsoft
Live Communication Server.
- Candace noted that Avaya has a new SIP "starter kit"; contact Bruce Mazza
()
 for more information.

Finally, the group chose a discussion topic for the October 20 call: defining
federations in the context of integrated communications. [ACTION] For 
discussion
on the October 20 call, all will give some thought to the problem of how to
define federations in the context of integrated communications.