Megaconference IV will be held Dec 10, 2002. There will be three sessions to accommodate participants in the various time zones around the world. An early session will emphasize Europe and Africa, a mid-day session will emphasize the Western Hemisphere, and a late session will emphasize Asia and the Pacific. All participants are encouraged to participate in all sessions to the extent they can do so. The exact times will be announced later on the megacon email list and the Megaconference web site
(http://www.mega-net.net/megaconference).

Everyone in the world with H.323 equipment is invited to participate.

Megaconference IV is organized similarly to the previous Megaconferences, in that there will be a series of live presentations from authors all over the world, all brought to you over the Internet using H.323 video conferencing technology. They will be presenting on many interesting topics related to the practical use of H.323 technology for Distance Learning and for communication with Far Away Places.

The program of speakers is now being organized, and if you would like to make a presentation, please send paragraph or two to dixon.8@osu.edu describing your proposed presentation. Or if you know someone who might like to make a presentation, please urge them to do so. Only end users may make presentations, as opposed to technical support people.

We tried very hard to have the International Space Station in this year's Megaconference, but we could not make the schedules match. However, NASA has agreed that they WILL make the Space Station available for a special version of the Megaconference to be scheduled sometime after Dec 10. Details will be announced later.

The conference is of course fully interactive, so anyone anywhere may ask questions of any of the speakers.

By popular demand, the "Megacon Cafe" events will be retained this year. At several times during the day there will be open sessions which are free time for anyone to talk to anyone about anything, or to take a break, or whatever. This is often a good time to ask more questions of the presenters, and to form new collaborations among people of common interests.

Also by popular demand, the Roll Call event will be retained and expanded. Every participating organization will be given about 30 seconds to introduce themselves to the world, tell where they are, show off whatever they wish, sing their school fight song or anything that strikes their imagination.

A number of very nice door prizes have been donated by various vendors,
and they will be awarded by random drawings during the roll call events. The Grand Prize is a $9000 video conferencing station.

Megaconference IV will include the first Internet "game". It will be run along the lines of the popular game "Where in world is Carmen San Diego?" Clues and help will be placed around the global Internet, and you will have to find your way to the ultimate destination where the "Evil Doctor X" will be waiting to give a prize to the first arrival. You are encouraged to form teams and collaborations to share clues, but of course double crosses are always possible.

Unlike previous Megaconferences, this one will NOT coincide with the
Fall Internet2 members meeting, so there will be no local audience at any central location. The audience is distributed around the world, and can range from one person to a roomfull of people at each participating location.

The full agenda and presentation abstracts will be posted on the
Megaconference web site as it develops.

We expect several hundred universities and other organizations around
the world will be participating, and we would like your institution to
be one of them.

OK SO WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MEGACONFERENCE?

1. You must have an H.323 videoconferencing system, with a hardware codec (examples are Polycom, VCON, Zydacron etc). You cannot use a software codec (examples are Microsoft Netmeeting, CU-SeeMe etc).

2. You must have a connection to the Internet of sufficient speed and quality that you can do good quality video conferencing at the speed of 768K bits/sec, using the H.263 video codec. Dial-up modems at 56K do not work. Cable modems and DSL sometimes, but not always, work. Campus ethernet connections generally work fine. (Note - There will be an accommodation for those who can only run at 384K and with the H.261 codec, by providing a more limited subsidiary conference which is linked to the main conference.)

3. You must register to participate as soon as possible. Do so by going to the Megaconference web pages and filling out the registration form.
There is no cost. All registrants will automatically be subscribed
To the megacon email list (if they are not already) so they can receive future updates.

4. You must successfully participate in AT LEAST one of the rehearsals that will be held between now and the Megaconference. You may participate in any and all. The rehearsals help you and us get the equipment and network bugs worked out. You agree in advance that you will not get crabby and complain loudly if things do not work perfectly at first, because you realize this is pushing the state of the art to new heights, and so problems are to be expected.

The dates of the rehearsals are:

Thursday Oct 24 10-12 am EDT (GMT-4)
Friday Nov 15 2:30-4:30 pm EST (GMT-5)
Tuesday Nov 26 7-9 am EST (GMT-5)
Tuesday Dec 3 8am - 8pm (GMT-5)
Details will be announced later.

5. You will be assigned to one of the MCUs that will be used in the Megaconference, and given instructions as to how to connect to it. The manager of that MCU may contact you to make specific arrangements.

6. Know how or learn how to be polite in a video conference. Mute your microphone when not talking. Don't blurt in "Can you hear me??" every so often. And so on.

7. Show up for the Megaconference with all your friends and participate fully and above all, learn a lot and have a great time!!

Bob
--
Robert S. Dixon, Ph D, PE
Chief Research Engineer
Ohio State University, Office of the CIO
and Ohio Academic Resources Network (OARNet)
Office of the CIO
Room 451 Baker Systems Engr Lab
Ohio State University
1971 Neil Ave
Columbus, OH 43210
Telephone: 614-292-1638
Fax: 614-292-7081
Email: Bob_Dixon@osu.edu