VRVS instructions

["Mark M. Ito" <marki@jlab.org>]

PrimEx Folks,

At today's PrimEx meeting we will try a new method for shared viewing
of slides both inside and outside the meeting room, the Virtual Room
Videoconferencing System (http://www.vrvs.org). Note that although the
most prominent features of the system are audio and video transmission
over the internet, we will *not* be using these. Instead, we will only
be using the so-called "Desktop Sharing" feature.

The idea is that in the meeting room, the computer desktop that is
being shown on the screen can be shared out to the "virtual
room". That way folks off-site can see exactly what is being shown in
the room. Most importantly, when the content on the desktop changes,
virtual participants need not do anything to follow along since they
will be seeing the desktop directly.

Initially we will only use this to augment the Whiteboard/Webpage
system we have been using up to now. If you don't use VRVS that is
fine for now.

First: you must register. It's a pretty standard web-site registration form.

1. Go to http://www.vrvs.org/
2. Click on "start" in the left column

At this point your browser behavior will be evaluated for suitability
for VRVS. You must have pop-up windows enabled and you must have the
Java plug-in installed.

3. Click on "register".
4. Fill out the registration form. Hints:
   a. supply the "login" name of your choice
   b. set the "community" to be "Universe"
   c. write down your password somewhere where you will not lose it ;-)
5. Click on the submit button when you are done.

At this point you must wait to get a "Welcome to VRVS" email message
from support@vrvs.org. When you get that message:

6. Go the URL indicated to complete your registration.

You will probably want to do this in advance of the meeting time.

Once you are registered, you can enter virtual meeting rooms. The room
reservation for this week is

  Forest
  2:30 to 5:30 pm
  Friday, May 6, 2005

To enter the room and pull up the meeting desktop:

1. go to http://www.vrvs.org/
2. click on "start" in the left column
3. click on "login"
4. enter your login name and password
5. click on "ENTER" in the left column
6. click on the meeting room

At this point you have be a bit patient. After a delay (less than a
minute) you will end up with two windows: a meeting room window and a
chat service window. Wait until the "applet" and "sharing" LED's show
green in the meeting room window.

7. In the meeting room window, click on the "sharing" tab
8. click on the "open" button

The desktop should appear as a new window on your screen.

To exit the meeting:

1. Click on the "main" tab in the meeting room window
2. Click on "Exit"

Let me know if you have problems with these directions.

  - Mark