Welcome to first issue of Videonet Vibrations! You have probably received this newsletter because you work for a California Public library equipped with interactive videoconferencing. This is the first of four issues that will update you on important technology developments; feature and pricing changes in commonly used products; and operational, management, production and technical troubleshooting tips.

The California Public Library Videoconferencing Network (affectionately and henceforth known as Project Videonet) aims to build a framework for cooperation among the nearly 40 public libraries in the state equipped with interactive videoconferencing, as well as address some of the most common issues raised by this technology. The project is supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), administered in California by the State Librarian.

Why Project Videonet?
Videoconferencing is a relatively new technology for public libraries; most equipped libraries have adopted it only the past two or three years. Librarians are finding it useful for increasing access to training; for saving time and travel costs related to attending administrative meetings; and for a variety of public-oriented applications – all of which directly or indirectly improve patron service.

However, like any new technology, each library is encountering various issues as it works to integrate videoconferencing into its day-to-day operations. These include community usage and pricing decisions, marketing challenges, and program development. Although most of these issues tend to be the same from site to site, libraries often find themselves addressing issues individually rather than collaboratively.

Project Videonet grew out of a meeting held at the California Library Association conference in November 2001, where representatives of approximately one dozen public libraries agreed on the need for and value of a collaborative approach to optimizing the use of videoconferencing. Rather than each library “reinventing the wheel” as far as this technology is concerned, attendees agreed to form a cooperative network, identify the top issues facing the video-equipped libraries, and devote a contract project manager as a shared resource to develop solutions of common benefit. National City Public Library agreed to be the grant applicant, and to act as fiscal agent.

Sounds good. But "Where's the Beef"?
The goal of Project Videonet is to make more effective use of interactive videoconferencing among California public libraries, thereby improving operational efficiency, fiscal economy, and customer service. read more...

Link Up with the Videonet Listserv
Project Videonet was envisioned to cut across established organizational hierarchies, functioning as a "Community of Practice". A Community of Practice is defined as a "group of professionals, informally bound to one another through exposure to a common class of problems, common pursuit of solutions, and thereby themselves embodying a store of knowledge." (Johnson-Lenz). read more...

Project Videonet Advisory Committee
Project Videonet extends a heartfelt "thank you" to those public library staff members who have volunteered to serve on the project's advisory committee. Committee members will meet (via audio-, web-, or videoconference) four times during the project's fiscal year to give input to the project workplan, and make adjustments/additions as appropriate. read more...

OK, you all know the benefits of videoconferencing - conquering time and distance to bring us all virtually face-to-face.

But let's be honest. Some of you also know the ugly side of the technology: ISDN line problems, long distance carrier troubles, equipment melt-downs, lost instruction manuals, operator errors, moon in Jupiter, squirrels chewing on the phone lines, etc. etc.

Well, help is close at hand for California's rural public libraries equipped with videoconferencing, thanks to two new projects that are part of the California State Library's LSTA-funded Rural Initiative.

One project, to test a new means of telecommunications transport as a potentially more reliable alternative to ISDN, will be covered in a subsequent issue of this newsletter. The second project will make the services of an ace videoconferencing troubleshooter available to those rural libraries that are at their wits' end about how to get their videoconferencing equipment and/or ISDN lines up and working.

The Rural Initiative has retained Mike Todd, an expert in the technical nuts-and-bolts of ISDN videoconferencing, to function as a circuit-riding troubleshooter for rural public libraries. Some of you up north may remember Mike from the NorCal VideoLink project a few years back, for which he performed a similar role. Mike will consult with you to diagnose the problem, come on-site to your library if needed, and hog-tie the various vendors to get the problems fixed.

Like any offer too good to be true, there are a few caveats:

1. Mike's services are available only to California's rural libraries. He is being funded by the Rural Initiative, a separate LSTA project from Project Videonet. The State Library figures that the larger libraries have more resources available for solving tech problems that the rural libraries.
2. Please explore your own internal resources, troubleshooting skills, cheat sheets, gut-level hunches, and scribbled yellow stickies before you call on Mike. Also, if you have a maintenance contract with your equipment vendor (usually either PacBell or Verizon), we ask that you explore solutions through this channel first, since you've already paid for that assistance. The Rural Initiative needs to reserve Mike's services for those truly mysterious and chronic problems.
3. Mike's services are available to rural libraries at no charge through the Rural Initiative through September 30, 2003. But if he identifies problems that require spending money to resolve, and those expenditures are not covered under manufacturer warranty or vendor maintenance contract, you will be responsible for paying those charges if you want the problem fixed.

If you interested in having Mike get your sidelined video unit back up and cruising down the Information Superhighway, contact Videonet project manager Dan Theobald at 415-431-0320, or dtheobald@i2icom.com.

This map shows the California communities with videoconferencing-equipped public libraries. A few of these libraries do not have equipment located on their own premises, but have cooperative usage arrangements with nearby institutions, such as schools, county offices of education, or county administrative offices.

In addition to those towns shown, a number of the recently announced Prop 14 Bond Act grantees have specified that they intend to include videoconferencing in their new facilities. These are Anaheim Public Library (Haskett branch), City of Orange, Hercules Public Library, and City of San Diego (Logan Heights branch).

Please squawk if we missed you! A directory with contact information is under development, and will be announced via the Videonet listserv as soon as it's available.

Project Videonet extends its thanks to Jackie Siminitus (js8295@sbc.com) of SBC (formerly Pacific Bell) for originating the map and keeping it updated for several years now.

One of the bugaboos of ISDN videoconferencing is that most video calls you make (as opposed to calls you receive) incur telecommunications usage charges, just like long distance voice calls. But since the typical three-line ISDN video call involves six times the bandwidth of a voice call, these charges can really add up ­ sometimes up to $70 per hour for an instate videoconference. To make matters worse, the per-minute charges for ISDN calls are usually more than for voice calls, since carriers may route them over special data networks.

All of this can make budgeting for videoconferencing a rather confusing and tedious process, especially for cash-strapped public libraries who usually can’t predict just how many hours of videoconferencing they will be doing from month to month. A lot of you may end up on the side of caution, and not taking advantage of training and programming offerings because you don’t want to break the bank.

The ideal solution for this situation is to migrate videoconferencing onto a telecommunications technology that is not usage-sensitive, such as various IP (internet protocol) networks. A test of this technology will be conducted this year with a few rural public libraries.

In the meantime, your best option is find the least-expensive long distance service, in order to keep your ISDN usage charges as low as possible. One of the best available rates is a special offer through Sprint, which was negotiated last year by the California Association of Counties (CSAC) when it installed videoconferencing equipment in most of the state’s county government offices. CSAC has kindly arranged for public libraries to take advantage of this rate as well.

The Sprint/CSAC rates (for a typical 3-ISDN line, 384 kbs call) are:

Instate - 7.44 cents per minute, or about $27 per hour

Out-of-state - 11.9 cents per minute, or $43 per hour

To obtain the special Sprint rate for ISDN videoconferencing, contact Bill Long at 916-853-3173, or bill.long@mail.sprint.com. Be sure to request the special CSAC rate when you call. Even if you get your long distance service through your county telecom department, rather than directly from a carrier, Bill may be able to help your county get a better rate on video calls - which will benefit you at charge-back time.

Unfortunately, the rates quoted above do not include taxes and surcharges (sorry!)

As of press time, long-time California public school and library supporter SBC (formerly Pacific Bell) had just received regulatory permission to offer long distance service to its California customers. Jackie Siminitus of SBC's Education Market Group has promised to advocate internally for a very favorable ISDN long distance rate for videoconferencing. Watch this newsletter or the Project Videonet listserv for more details as they become available.

And last but not least -- thank you Lisa Naef of Humboldt County Library and Margaret Miles of Plumas County Library for road-testing several long distance carriers in pursuit of the lowest rate.

You know those occasional (but frustrating) times, usually during heavy business hours, when you try to place a voice call and get a recorded message that says "All circuits are busy now, please try your call again later"? Telecommunications carriers have engineered their networks to carry the average amount of traffic normally encountered during peak calling periods, but when traffic spikes above those averages, the network becomes congested and calls will not go through.

Well, that situation can occur in the world of ISDN videoconferencing as well. Except there is no convenient message that pops up on your video screen to identify the problem; all you know is that your video call will not connect.

In a failure-to-connect environment, network congestion is one of the usual suspects. To troubleshoot it, try "dialing around" your subscription carrier by using the 7-digit "company code" of another carrier. (You've probably seen the voice versions of these codes advertised on TV.) The most commonly used codes are:

ATT - 1010288

MCI - 1010222

SBC - 1010372

Sprint - 1010333

So, say that your ISDN video lines are subscribed to Sprint, and you are having trouble dialing out. As part of your troubleshooting routine, you could try placing the call over ATT by dialing 1010288-1-AREA CODE-PREFIX-XXXX. If you are trying to call within your same area code, the dialing pattern would be 1010288-PREFIX-XXXX (unless you are in some of those lucky areas of the state where even local calls require dialing an area code).

A couple of caveats ­ You might need to try more than one code before you find one that works. And be aware that the rate of a code-dialed call will likely be higher than a call placed over your subscription carrier.

You might want to consider taping these company codes to the back of your videoconferencing unit’s remote control device, or on the side of the unit itself, so they are readily available when you need them!

Stay tuned to future issues of Videonet Vibrations!, and to the Videonet listserv, for more troubleshooting suggestions.