On Monday April 7, SCIL Director of Technologies Bob Smith shared a 'Wallenberg Hall User Guide' for staff, faculty and students that work in the building. Since the building's reopening in 2002, a wide variety of groups have come through the space and the institutional knowledge of how to take advantage of the resources here has come and gone with some of them. This talk was designed to introduce our newest occupants to the history and affordances of this space and introduce some of the building's newer collaboration tools to a wider audience.
Bob discussed the growing numbers of activities that have some element of distance collaboration and some of the tools we have to support these emerging processes. In particular we are able to support videoconferences using Polycom Viewstations - internet based devices dedicated to videoconferencing. This works well for small groups on each side and can give a high quality video and audio experience. It requires the site on the other side to have similar technology.
An alternative remote collaboration system is Marratech, a software based system that runs directly on a personal computer requiring only a webcam and microphone. Marratech supports a shared workspace where remote collaborators can share slides, images, documents, whiteboard, and more. Teams in Wallenberg Hall can schedule Marratech sessions with Adelaide Dawes, building manager.