Upcoming change in teleconference services: WebEx now available to W3C groups, Zakim end of life

Colleagues:

Over the next several weeks W3C will be transitioning teleconferences
from W3C's Zakim teleconference bridge to MIT's badged Cisco WebEx
service. This change is cost driven, and is understood to be an interim
solution.

Though many features we enjoy in the integration of the Zakim bridge and
irc will end with this transition, two new capabilities will become
available to us:

1. International dial-out to any phone number
2. VoIP connectivity via Cisco's WebEx client(s)

Action to Take

Please prepare to use Webex on your platform(s). Plugins exist for major
browsers, and (reasonably) accessible Webex clients for Ios
and Android are available.

As noted above you will also have the option to be called at any PSTN
number of your choosing.

IRC will continue to be used much as we use it today, except that we
will now need to identify our presence on calls as follows:

present+ <Your_Name>
Ex: present+ Janina_Sajka

Additional guidance will be provided in the next days and weeks. Michael
or I will join each of our several weekly teleconferences to explain
this transition and answer questions. We will also conduct test sessions
where call access will be available both over Webex and our customary
Zakim service. W3C plans to complete this transition by 30 June.

A wiki page [1] has been started with some recommended best practices
for using WebEx in W3C meetings.  People are invited to improve this
best practices document.

[1] https://www.w3.org/2006/tools/wiki/WebExBestPractices

W3C Statement on the Transition
Ralph Swick has made the following statements regarding this transition:

"W3C's Zakim teleconference system has served us long and well.  Times
move on, however, and the hardware comprising the Zakim system lacks the
capability to provide connectivity that is of growing importance to some
of our community.  Three years ago we began a search for a
current-generation system that would provide both PSTN and direct SIP
access from a vendor who would also commit to WebRTC support.  We are
still looking for such a system that fits our limited budget.

"Meanwhile, the MIT campus telephone infrastructure has also undergone a
major overhaul and the financial arrangement we have enjoyed with MIT
that provided the physical telephone circuits to our Zakim bridge is
coming to an end this June.  This is forcing us to make a change sooner
than we otherwise would have.

"We will continue to monitor the progress of WebRTC deployment in the
hope that we will have available a system that meets our needs in the
not too distant future, including PSTN interconnection and APIs for
integration into our W3C infrastructure."

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Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
			sip:janina@asterisk.rednote.net
		Email:	janina@rednote.net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair,	Protocols & Formats	http://www.w3.org/wai/pf

Received on Tuesday, 5 May 2015 16:13:25 UTC