communicating effectively over the access grid ariella rebbi, boston university

Communicating Effectively over the Access Grid

Ariella Rebbi, Boston University

Many Thanks

An earlier version of this training was developed for the SC Global Production Institute Thanks to Sherine Mansour, Sheridan College

Additional material is taken from Mary Fritsch’s tips for communicating over the AG, soon to be available on the AGDP web site http://www.accessgrid.org/agdp/

http://www.accessgrid.org/agdp/

Today’s Agenda

IntroductionsBrief Access Grid Overview for SpeakersPersonal PerformanceEvent Facilitation TechniquesPractice Sessions

Please hold your questions; we’ve got a lot to cover, and will ask for questions at specific times by show of hands

Introductions

Please wave when I say “hello” to your site and introduce yourselves. Tell us a little bit about your experience with the Access Grid!

The Access Grid (AG)

Group-to-group collaboration across high-performance networks Individual site installations often called “nodes”

Often used to support large-scale distributed meetings, collaborative work sessions, seminars, lectures, tutorials and trainingLarge events mean lots of planning and prep Smaller and/or less formal AG events often require

little if any planning and prep

AG Node Technical Support

Each AG node has some number of technical staff involved in each event, depending on the size of the node and the nature of the event

As few as one, as many as five or more

A Team at Each Node

All staff work closely together, especially if any issues arise during the course of the event (technical or otherwise) This is as true for speakers as for tech staff This is true both of staff at a specific node,

and staff at all participating nodes A text-based back channel is used for

communication among staff (Please note this is different on AG1 and AG2.)

Section One: Personal Performance

Tips on Preparing and Making an Excellent Presentation!!!

Who’s Your Audience?

Remember that your “virtual” audience is very much real. In some cases remote audiences vastly outnumber the audience which is physically in the same room with you.How is giving an Access Grid presentation different than just talking to a group of people in a room?

Making the Most of your Presentation (your link to your virtual

audience)

Maintain confidence; maintain camera “eye contact” (your connection to the outside) Work with your node’s technical staff to

ensure the camera is placed well

Speak clearly and slowly Work with your technical staff to learn

appropriate microphone use Don’t “eat the mic”

Use high-energy delivery!!!!!!!Watch for cues from your audience

Making More of Your Presentation

Pause if anything disrupts the event. Be sure to inform your “virtual” audience what is happening Work closely with your node’s support

staff if problems of any kind arise Your node’s support staff can convey

messages to remote audiences through their node’s staff (also by using back channels)

Communicating Directly

Remember to tailor your presentation for the audience and group dynamics of the whole event, not just the people in your physical room Remember possible cultural

differences in audiences, since AG technology makes it possible to communicate globally.

Communicating Carefully (designing your distributed

documentation)

Design slides/presentations carefully, use legible fontsKeep presentations strong and simpleEnsure that you or your node operations staff have tested your slides in the appropriate tool DPPT for AG1, Shared Presentation for

AG2

New - Shared applications available on AG2 software.

Shared Browser Application. This allows for a shared web browser to be seen by all sites. When a site clicks on a link to a new page all sites running the shared browser will display the new page.Shared presentation application. This allows multiple sites to view Powerpoint presentations including animations. (Please speak with your AG node-op to see what is available and how this differs from AG1 DPPT.)

New - Shared applications available on AG2 software.

Image Viewer: Shared viewer for many common image types.Movie Player: Share movies across the Access Grid. Currently works best on single-machine nodes.Shared RasMol: Visualization tool for proteins, nucleis acids, and small molecules.

More on shared apps . . .

More detail on these shared applications will be available in a future seminar by Jennifer Teig von Hoffman on April 27.Users’ Guide to Shared Applications for AG 2.x currently in progress for AG Documentation Project.

Their Mileage May Vary

When designing presentation materials: Realize variance of screen sizes and

monitor colors across remote nodes Remember to talk to your local node staff

about your options for distributed applications – BUT PLEASE – try and speak to them as early as possible so you can have ample time to set things up. *Please remember that not all sites may be running AG2 yet.

“What Should I Wear?”Visibility is important on the Access

Grid

In general, avoid patterned, busy, or detailed clothingChoose solid, bright colors that will translate well over the AG technologyConsider your lighting (work with your production/technical team)Ensure there are no lights behind you or any source of lighting (such as a window)

Questions?

Section Two: Event Facilitation Techniques

Common Sense Strategies, Applied to Access Grid Events

Planning Ahead

We’ll cover several facilitation techniques today. When choosing one, ask yourself: What is the format of this event? How many people and sites will be

participating? How is this group accustomed to interacting? Which technique best fits my personal style?

As you become comfortable with the AG, you may have additional, excellent ideas to try

Common Sense Facilitiation Techniques

At the beginning of an event, let your event participants know how you’ll be handling questions and commentsThree recommended techniques: Just Speak Up Raising Hands Passing the Floor

Just Speak Up

In small meetings, it may be most appropriate for people to just speak up whenever they want to speakAG audio is pretty clear A sharp intake of breath tells you

somebody wants to say something

This usually feels quite natural, but important to make it explicit

Raising Hands

Good for many medium-sized meetingsAsk people to raise their hands, and wait until recognized by the chairperson before they speak Relatively intuitive, since people are

accustomed to doing this in many settings

With this facilitation strategy, it is crucial that all participants can easily be seen in video streams

Management Through Text Based Back Channels

Frequently used, but we do not generally recommend it Not transparent to meeting participants Relies heavily on node operators – we feel

that meeting participants should be able to communicate freely without assistance

The MOO is a separate text-based backchannel used by AG1 node operators for communications during any given AG1 event. In AG2 a text based back-channel is already incorporated into the software.

Passing the Floor (a great technique for large events)

Recommended for large, formal eventsOne AG site in each event is considered the “main” site Usually the site with the main speaker or

largest audience Sites which are not “main” are “remote”

Each site needs a Master of Ceremonies (MC) A Speaker may double as an MC

Passing the Floor

At any given time, one site has “the floor”The MCs work together to pass the floor around to each site in turnEach site needs (their own) strategy for local management of questions Raising hands Standing in line at a microphone etc, etc. . .

A Basic Example: Facilitating a Lecture

Four participating sites: Main: A Remote: B Remote: C Remote: D

In this example, the Speaker will double as the Master of Ceremonies at site A

Lecture Facilitation

Speaker/MC at Site A gives presentation…

MAINA

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Speaker/MC at Site A explains that questions will be solicited from sites in the following order: A, B, C, D …

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Speaker/MC at site A solicits questions from local audience at Site A

Please note that some protocol will be in place at each local site for how to indicate that one has a question, ie by raising one’s hand or lining up at a microphone

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Site A Speaker/MC “passes the floor” to Site B MC

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Site B MC solicits questions from local audience at Site B; Site A Speaker/MC answers them in turn

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When all questions have been answered, Site B MC “passes the floor” back to Site A Speaker/MC

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The Site A Speaker/MC next “passes the floor” to the Site C MC

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The MC at Site C solicits questions from the local audience at Site C, which the Speaker/MC at Site A answers in turn

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The MC at Site C“passes the floor” back to the Site A Speaker/MC. . .

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. . . Who in turn “passes the floor” to the Site D MC, for Site D local audience’s local questions, which the Speaker/MC at Site A answers in turn

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And finally, “the floor” is returned to the Speaker/MC at Site A

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The Speaker/MC at Site A thanks all MCs and audiences, and closes the event.

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Section Three: A Practice Session

Practice is Important!

Practice before an event if: The event involves a large number of participants

(say, 50+), or a large number of participating sites (say, 8+), or most sites are new

The event is high-visibility, or high-pressure

Once you get the hang of it, you won’t need to practice as oftenToday we’ll practice the most complicated technique we’ve discussed: Passing the Floor

Volunteers Please

Four sites: Main Site A, with Speaker/MC and

audience Remote Site B, with MC and audience Remote Site C, with MC and audience Remote Site D, with MC and audience

Any other sites will simply observe

How We’ll Practice

We will run through the lecture example which we saw earlier Italicized notes on each slide give detail

on what should happen at each step Suggested topic: Your Favorite

Dessert

I will now “pass the floor” to the MC/Speaker at Site A so they can begin the practice session


Speaker/MC at Site A gives presentation…

MAINA

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