Yes. The invite went to [email protected]. You might want to check
spam folder settings etc. I can forward the invite, but it would be
better to sort out why you didn't receive it so you can receive updates
in the future. Michael
On 09/05/2015 11:50 PM, lisa.seeman wrote:
Hi Michael
Was I also meant to get an email directly from webex?
All the best
Lisa Seeman
Athena ICT Accessibility Projects <http://accessibility.athena-ict.com>
LinkedIn <http://il.linkedin.com/in/lisaseeman/>, Twitter
<https://twitter.com/SeemanLisa>
---- On Fri, 08 May 2015 21:20:13 +0300 *Michael
Cooper<[email protected]>* wrote ----
As you know, the W3C Zakim teleconference bridge will soon be
decommissioned. As a supposedly interim solution, W3C will use
WebEx for teleconferences. I am about to schedule WebEx
reservations for the groups in my area of responsibility. For each
reservation, I will have the system send the chair / facilitator
of that call information about the reservation, for you to include
in your agenda. This message is to let you know to look out for
those messages and explain why you'll be seeing them.
A number of notes about this:
* Please keep the mail you receive from WebEx. I do not know of
a lookup service to find information about a given call if you
forget it. As the scheduler of these calls I can look it up if
needed, but it would involve a loop without guaranteed fast
response. It will be best for you to save the email in some
place you know to look.
* I am scheduling calls that I can remember. I don't attend all
calls so may forget about some I need to schedule. Please ping
me if you don't get a WebEx reservation within an hour of this
message for a call you need to keep running.
* I am not at the moment scheduling WebEx reservations for joint
task forces, because I don't want to cross wires with the
staff contact of the other group. If you would like me to be
the one to set up the reservation for a joint task force, let
me know. I will also try to check with the staff contacts of
joint task forces to work it out with them directly, but it's
best if facilitators work directly with whichever staff
contact they want managing the call. This matters because only
the person who originally scheduled the call can make changes
to it, so you should work with whichever staff contact is
closer to that particular group (sometimes me, sometimes not).
* WebEx does not allow us to choose the meeting code, so we
can't get mnemonic codes. Each meeting will have a different 9
digit code, but recurring meetings will have the same code
week to week. So while each different meeting will have a
different code, the connection information for a given meeting
is the same week to week and you can copy forwards from your
agenda messages. Because we will not have mnemonic codes and
there will be different codes for each of the several W3C
meetings some people attend each week, it will be important to
provide the full connection information in each week's agenda.
Note there is also a URI to join the meeting which some people
will be able to use without needing the code, you should
include this in your agenda also.
* WebEx uses a meeting "password" in addition to the code. The
password is something I can choose and will try to make
obvious choices for our meetings, and it will be in the
automated mail you receive. Let me know if you prefer a
different password.
* I strongly recommend you test the WebEx system with your group
within the next couple weeks, if you have not already done so.
There will be some startup pains as people figure out what
connection method works for them, get their devices working
with the WebEx tools, get out of the habit of using Zakim,
etc. Scheduling time in an upcoming agenda where you can test
the WebEx system, while also having the Zakim bridge open so
people can fall back to it and say "help" will help smooth the
transition.
* My understanding is Zakim will be decommissioned at the end of
June. You can switch to WebEx at any time before then if you
like, once you have tested it out with the group. If you do
not test it out before the end of June, you will be forced to
switch anyways and should expect some bumps at that time.
* WebEx has features beyond audio teleconferencing, such as
screen sharing, whiteboard, chat, video, closed captioning,
file transfer, etc. In my initial experiments with WebEx I
have found that these features can be very distracting if not
well managed, and as far as I can tell it's not possible to do
things like only allow one person to share their screen -
anybody else can just take over at any time which really
interrupts a presentation. So for the moment I am setting up
meetings with most of these features turned off. If you would
like your meeting to support one of these features, let me
know and I can turn it on.
* WebEx defines a "host" that has some extra call management
abilities. There can only be one host at a time, which I
believe is either the first person to join the meeting, or
somebody with a code that allows them to take over the host
role. Initially I plan to be the "host" while we work out
kinks, but will give chairs / facilitators the host code so
you can manage your call. *Please do not share the host code
for your meeting with participants, as chaos could ensue.*
* Although the Zakim teleconference bridge will disappear, the
zakim IRC bot will not. It will not longer be able to identify
callers, but its agenda and queue management features will
still work. The current expectation is that groups will
continue to use the usual IRC meeting minutes tools etc.
* General information about WebEx is available from
https://mit.webex.com/. This is also where to go to to join a
meeting if choosing to do it via the web client or request a
dialout.
* It is possible to dial into WebEx using a local or nearby
number in many areas. These numbers are listed at
http://www.cisco.com/web/about/doing_business/conferencing/index.html.
You can point people to this page in your agendas if you want,
or you can include specific local numbers for your
participants if you think it would be helpful.
* Some suggestions for using WebEx for W3C calls are available
at https://www.w3.org/2006/tools/wiki/WebExBestPractices. This
resource may evolve. Let me know if you think of something
that should be added to it.
* Keeping track of attendees in the meeting will be a challenge.
Users of the web client will be able to see a participants
list, but some of the participants may be just a phone number
or something, and we don't have a way to tell the system which
connection belongs to whom. You will need to use the "present:
" or "present+ " commands in IRC to get participants listed.
* Muting noisy lines will be a challenge. The web client does
indicate who is speaking / making noise. However, only the
"host" can force mute someone if that person doesn't mute
themselves. As far as I know, there isn't a feature for people
to unmute themselves with the phone keypad, so keep in mind
that if you mute someone they may be unable to speak up unless
they are in the web client.
* The WebEx web client isn't fully accessible to all users, so
some people may not be able to use WebEx that way. There are
smartphone apps for the major phone systems that are
reportedly more accessible. It's also possible to dial in
using the plain old telephone network. Some people have been
exploring the accessibility gotchas and workarounds, and
hopefully there will be some documentation about that you can
share with your groups.
Good luck! I expect there will be startup challenges so let me
know when you need help.
Michael
