A A Presentation Presentation Management Management SystemSystem for for Collaborative Collaborative

MeetingsMeetings

Krzysztof Wrona (ZEUS)

DESY Hamburg24 March, 2003

ZEUS Electronic Meeting Management System – ZEMS

24 March, 2003K. Wrona, A Presentation Management System for Collaborative Meetings

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Outline

Motivation

Requirements

General concept

System structure & security

Functionality

24 March, 2003K. Wrona, A Presentation Management System for Collaborative Meetings

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Motivation

Electronic slides presentation have become a standard

Remote participation at meetings are indispensable in HEP community

However:

Too much time and people resources spent for meeting organization

Sharing documents between all meeting participants is not simple and often creates unexpected problems

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Requirements

Integrated system for meetings managementDeals with different organization aspects

Implements procedure for slides collecting

Allows for slides presentation

Should be easy-to-use, reliable and secure

Support for different kind of meetingsCollaboration meetings

Working group meeting

Meetings based on video-conference system

Seminars

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Requirements – details

1. Presentationa) Excellent slides reproduction for hundreds of listenersb) Support for people at other labs who cannot attend the meeting in personc) Access to remote resources in auditorium

2. Meeting organizationa) Simple, comfortable interface for agenda generationb) Sub-tasks delegation (e.g. sessions chairmen)

3. Slides submissiona) Easy, fast method for slides submissionb) Last-minute changes, additional materials for discussionc) Access control list

4. Interaction between presentationsa) Summary speakers collect material from previous presentations

24 March, 2003K. Wrona, A Presentation Management System for Collaborative Meetings

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ZEMS System

Integrated system based on web technology

Widely available

Well known components – easy-to-operate

Long experience running web server

Access to external resources via web

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Components

Client 1

Client 2

Client 3

Client N

diskrepository

AP

AC

HE

Doc

um

ent

Roo

t

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System Structure

Manager

Speaker

Meeting participant

Different functionalities and privileges

Manager – write access to disk repository and database

Speaker – write access to selected directories in repository and only one table in database

Meeting participant – read only access

Small number of managers

Sizeable group of speakers, authorized to upload a file for a particular presentation

Huge number of passive meeting participants

24 March, 2003K. Wrona, A Presentation Management System for Collaborative Meetings

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Security

File upload potentially a “risky” business

Secure connection using SSL module

Web server authentication mechanism does not give us enough flexibility

We maintain access control list in database

Access to the system is possible only via well defined web interface

System runs on separate web service

Appropriate file-system permissions

Repository outside “web directory tree” – no direct access to files via URL

PHP session management – all requests sent from web pages prepared by possible attacker are refused

Minimum privileges to database, only local access

All variables sent to web server need special treatment (post method, quotation for database queries, no global variables)

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Hierarchy

Meeting classes (groups)MeetingSessionPresentationFile containing slides

Weekly

Collaboration meeting

Jan/2002Collaboration

MeetingMay/2002

CollaborationMeeting

Sep/2002Collaboration

Meeting

Parallel sessionParallel session

Detector status

Plenarysession

Introduction

MC production

Analysistools

ComputingSlides.ppt

image.gif

video

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Delegation of privileges

session 1m anager 6

session 2m anager 8

presentation 1speaker 76

pres. 2speaker 45

pres.3speaker 22

session 3m anager 5

m eeting 1 m eeting 2m anager 4

m eeting 3m anager 4m anager 8

G roup Im anager 3

m eeting 4m anager 5

G roup IIm anager 5

m eeting 5m anager 2

G roup IIIm anager 1m anager 2

ZEMSZEMS Adm inistra tor

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ZEMS administrator creates “group”, assigns manager

Group manager creates meeting

Group manager may grant privileges to other manager (meeting or session chairman)

Manager view

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Agenda GenerationManager prepares an agenda using comfortable web forms

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Speaker view

Speaker opens a browser

Authenticates to the system

Uploads slides

Slides may be re-ordered or hidden

Only speaker is involved, can be done at any time before the talk

Immediately after uploading the slides are available for other participants

Last minute updates possible

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Slide showIn auditorium, speaker shows slides

Documents accessible through orderly placed web links

The same hardware is used for all presentations

No need to reconnect notebooks

Connection to internet

Possibility of using external resources

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Remote Participation

People on remote sites can view slides in exactly the same way

Coexistence with online video

Displaying slides on desktop PC

Displaying meeting agenda

RealPlayer

slides viewer

web browser

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Summary Speaker

Summary speaker may use all slides from a session to prepare a talk

Slides available for all participants

May be downloaded

Selected results or plots may be copied to summary presentation

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Experience

4 collaboration meetings ( 3 in Hamburg + 1 in London)Access via wide area network for London meeting

In total 30 meetings, 90 sessions, ~500 presentationsTypically slides upload procedure takes 1-2 minutes

includes navigation to a proper talk, speaker authentication and slides upload

System highly popular in ZEUSVery positive response from meeting participants (speakers, listeners and people on remote sites)

Usage of the system is straight forward Summary speakers could finish and upload slides even during the ongoing session (via WLAN)

Further improvements in preparation:Automated registration for a meetingTemplates for agenda generation – useful for periodic meetings

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Summary

Integrated, web based meeting management system has been developed

Straight-forward usage

Significant improvement of document collecting procedure

Considerable improvement of remote participation

Elaborate security management, well defined privileges for each meeting participant

Reliability – no single failure over more than one year