WWW Fall 94 -- Notes for Multicast Session Chairs

Please be aware that the session you are chairing is going to be transmitted live over the Internet via a technology known as MBONE (Multicasting backBONE). This will allow people from around the world to view and hear the session, and to participate during question periods.

Multicasting will be a new experience for many meeting participants. Success of a multicast session requires the active and skillful collaboration of the chair. Please note the following:

1. The reaction of the audience to the multicasting activity depends largely upon the attitude evinced by the chair. If you remain relaxed and patient, the audience will also. It is also important to set realistic expectations for all of the participants at the outset of the session, so please read the document "Multicast Chair Remarks to the Audience" at the beginning of the session, slowly and clearly.

2. The person sitting in front of the workstation which is doing the multicasting is known as the interlocutor; it is part of this person's job to interact with you concerning multicasting details. Introduce yourself to this person before the session and write down his/her name, so that you can introduce him/her in the opening remarks. If a presenter is speaking particularly quickly or unclearly, or moving projected materials too frequently, the interlocutor may pass you a note to this effect, or whisper a remark. Use your own judgment as to how to best act on this information (feel free to do nothing if that is most appropriate!). You may want to sit next to the interlocutor during the presentations if you are curious to see what multicast video looks like.

3. The principal challenge for you, the chair, is to keep things moving smoothly by means of verbal cues; remember that many of the participants are listening in remotely and require explicit cues in order to interact with the hall constructively rather than disruptively. The sequence of events during question period should proceed as follows:
   • Begin by saying something to this effect: "I'd like to begin the queston period by entertaining questions from listeners on the MBONE. We realize it may time for you to turn on your microphones, so we'll wait a few moments. While we wait, people in the conference hall who want to to ask questions can line up at the microphone."

   • Pass the floor to the interlocutor, whom you should regard as a local representative of the remote participants. The interlocutor will have access to a microphone, and will speak out the network address of any would-be questioners, to recognize them (their voices will then be heard over the speaker system in the room).

   • The interlocutor will interrupt the questioner, if necessary, to remind him/her to state his/her name, affiliation, and geographical location. If the incoming audio is not sufficiently clear, the interlocutor will break in with something like: "I'm sorry, your question could not be heard clearly; please repeat it slowly."

   • If clear audio can not be received, the interlocutor may announce this fact, and proceed to another remote questioner.

   • If no MBONE questions come in after about 10-15 seconds, take the floor back from the interlocutor and proceed to ask for questions from the room.

   • Feel free to break off further questions from the network if there are people in the hall waiting to ask questions, saying something like "and now we will take questions from the conference hall."

   • Please try to solicite MBONE questions at least one more time during the question period, using your own judgement as to how best to interleave local and remote questions.

4. Be certain that each person asking a question begins by announcing his/her name and institutional affiliation. It's disorienting for remote listeners to suddenly hear an unidentified disembodied voice. Such an introduction is also helpful to local attendees.

5. Relax! This is all a lot easier than it may seem at first. Multicasting can be quite fun and engaging for all participants.