UB community invited to view experimental demonstration of high-quality videoconferencing on the Internet

The promise of both telemedicine and high-grade distance learning may be one giant step closer to being realized if an experimental demonstration of advanced Internet technology Tuesday involving UB, Erie County Medical Center and several other institutions goes off without a hitch.

The demonstration of high-quality videoconferencing and streaming video can be observed at 6:15 p.m. in Room 120 of Clemens Hall on the North Campus.

According to Jim Whitlock, associate director of computing services who is leading the effort, this experiment of strategic, high-performance Internet technologies, if successful, will not only prove that extremely high-quality video images-of the caliber necessary for advanced telemedicine-are possible today, but also will have major impacts on distance learning, global scholarly collaboration and multisite administrative collaboration.

"This is an experiment," stressed Whitlock. "By definition, it may fail completely. While preliminary trials to date have been exceptionally positive, there are some critical factors that will not be known until the time of the event. All are invited, however, to watch the proceedings and we believe that there will be a lot of strategically important technology available in its emergent form for everyone's examination."

The experiment involves a presentation to be given in California by UB School of Nursing faculty demonstrating remote preceptoring of clinical students at the Erie County Medical Center. This demonstration, to be given at the Syllabus Web99 conference, will be supported by state-of-the-art, professional/medical-grade multipoint Internet video conferencing on a multipoint control unit at Ohio State University.

The event will be recorded and made available via IP/TV for subsequent on-demand desktop viewing, as well as through videotape and CD ROM.

The demonstration is being conducted by Computing and Information Technology's Advanced Educational Technology Skunkworks-a group that evaluates and builds technology solutions for video-conferencing and distance learning-the UB School of Nursing, Erie County Medical Center and other supporting institutions and businesses.

For more information, contact Peter Jorgenson at 645-3879 or email Whitlock at whitlock@buffalo.edu.