Change of Megaconference Leadership

This was the 10th year for the Megaconference.

In the beginning, there was no such thing as H.323. A few of us got started with H.320 encapsulated in IP packets, using huge PC cards made by Zydacron. Mary Fran Yafchek of NYSERNET and Avi Moyal of RADVision organized a small group of us to get started with Internet video conferencing.

Eventually H.323 was created, and we all moved to that.The Internet2 Digital Video special interest group was formed, chaired by Larry Amiot of Northwestern. The group was looking for something to do that would popularize and spread the use of Internet video conferencing. I suggested that we sponsor a video conference, and invite the whole world, and let's call it the Megaconference. There was significant resistance to this wild idea, and it was even called "crazy". But this just made me even more determined, so I went off and organized it mostly by myself, and it was a big success. After the first one, everyone clammored to get on the bandwagon and said we had to do it every year.

During the 10 years of the Megaconference, the technology has grown from infancy to maturity.We helped make that happen. The Megaconference has been such a high profile event, that several vendors have actively participated in making sure they did not look bad, by sending engineers here to baby sit their equipment during the event. They told us we pushed them ahead of their development schedule, and we provided them with a more realistic testing ground than they could ever create themselves.

Through the years, many people have helped organize the Megaconferences. The current crew of wonderful and talented organizers includes:
Sandy Sprafka, now retired from North Dakota State University
Judson Eliott, of Baldwin-Wallace College
Jennifer Oxenford, of MAGPI
Arif Khan, of OARnet
Darayus Mehta, of Reliance ADA, in India
Megan Troyer of Ohio State University
Gabe Moulton, of Ohio State University
Nick Thompson, of Ohio State University
Robbie Noble, of Ohio State University

I have decided that this is the last year I will chair the Megaconference. New people and ideas are needed to guide the Megaconference into the future. I am getting older and have less energy than I once did. If you would like the Megaconference to continue, then you need to stand up and offer to help organize it, or to chair it. I can help out with some aspects, but not be chair. PLEASE write to me about this.

Bob