This talk might be of interest to TIER & CHANGE folks, given VSee's use in refugee camps. The talk is tomorrow @ Stanford @ 4:15pm cheers ashish ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 9:37 PM Subject: [EE CS Colloq] Design of Video Collaboration, Video Town Halls and a Distributed * 4:15PM, Wed Jan 19, 2011 in Gates B01 To: ashish.makani@gmail.com Stanford EE Computer Systems Colloquium 4:15PM, Wednesday, Jan 19, 2011 HP Auditorium, Gates Computer Science Building B01 http://ee380.stanford.edu Design of Video Collaboration, Video Town Halls and a Distributed Social Network for Humanitarian Environments Dr. Milton Chen VSee *About the talk:* Over the last five years, the VSee <http://vsee.com/> team has worked in refugee camps from Asia to Mideast to Africa -- most recently at the Iraq-Syria border supporting Hillary Clinton and Angelina Jolie for a global broadcast by the UN Refugee Agency. We will present the design of three communication systems for refugee and humanitarian environments -- specifically, featuring robust network tolerance and ease of use for non-experts and illiterate first time computer users. The first system is a managed peer-to-peer multiparty video calling, application sharing, and file transfer tool. Its network tolerance made it a favorite tool among NGOs in Afghanistan for medical and education initiatives. The second system is an interactive video town hall on Facebook and Twitter where participants are physically dispersed and network-challenged. Successes include Mandy Moore's Facebook anti-malaria campaign, Nothing But Nets<http://www.nothingbutnets.net/>, and a multi-location musical exchange by PlayingForChange<http://playingforchange.org/>. The third system is a distributed social network that can be used offline and synced periodically over cost and bandwidth-constrained networks. We will share practical insight from our field experience, as well as goals for an upcoming i-ACT/Darfur Sister Schools <http://iactivism.org/> trip in March, 2011. *About the speaker:* Milton is the CEO of VSee <http://vsee.com/>, a video collaboration tool that lets you share any application with one click, and send any file with one drag. VSee is used by over 6000 enterprises such as Shell, NASA, Navy SEALs, US Congress, the National Science Foundation, and to stream video over 3G from police cars. Milton received a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and a PhD in Human Computer Interaction from Stanford University. His insight in how to make videoconferencing and webconferencing an everyday experience has led to more than 100 invited talks to countries ranging from Iceland to Nigeria to Saudi Arabia. He also received the DEMO God award at DEMO 06, and is the co-author of XMPP video standard. *Contact information:* Milton Chen 3188 KIMLEE DR San Jose, CA 95132 650.331.0165 -- Warm Regards ashish makani Cell : +1.765.237.8365 amakani@purdue.edu ashish.makani@gmail.com Graduate Student, Deptt. of ECE, Purdue University #329 Electrical Engineering Building , 465 Northwestern Ave., West Lafayette, IN 47907-2035 "We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about." -- Albert Einstein