Real-time meetings

About real-time meetings

Real-time meetings enable your team to collaborate in real time, without leaving your eRoom. In a meeting, one participant at a time has control over the meeting content. The control "baton" can be passed from one participant to another. With real-time meetings in eRoom you can

• Start meetings (instant or event-based).

• Keep a meeting private by hiding it from non-participants.

• Notify participants via email.

• Add participants while a meeting is running.

• Join a meeting in progress.

• Converse with meeting participants in a text-based Chat pane.

• If you have the plug-in installed, share eRoom file items (including Microsoft PowerPoint presentations) or your desktop with meeting participants.

• If you have meeting control, save edits to shared file items.

• Annotate a shared whiteboard, file item, desktop, or presentation.

• If you have meeting control, take snapshots of the current content in the meeting window and display them as slides in a presentation.

• Review saved transcripts of chats and shared file pages from a meeting that has ended, or open a transcript in a later meeting and resume working from where you left off. That is, when you restart a meeting the transcript loads.

Note: Your site administrator configures real-time meetings in the eRoom MMC snap-in. Your community administrator determines community-wide access to real-time meetings with an option in Community Settings.

Instant vs. event-based meetings

You can start an instant meeting in your eRoom anytime you want to confer with your team, for example, to review a presentation, exchange ideas, or solve a problem. Instant meetings enable you to collaborate spontaneously with other project members.

For a meeting that requires more planning, or that occurs on a regular basis, you can schedule a calendar event in your eRoom, and start an event-based (or "scheduled") meeting from that event. Also, eRoom saves transcripts of event-based meetings when they end, so you can review a transcript outside of a running meeting, or you can restart a meeting from the same event and, using the transcript, start working right from where the meeting ended last.

The meeting window

Real-time meetings run in a browser window separate from your eRoom window. You perform all meeting activities (such as chatting, sharing files, and making annotations) in this window. All meeting participants see the same activities at the same time.

The meeting window is typically divided into three areas:

• Along the top are the meeting controls, including the annotation tools. The participant with control has access to additional tools for managing the meeting.

• On the left, below the meeting controls, is one of three side panes that all participants can manipulate:

• Chat -- Shows text-based conversation between meeting participants. When you have the Chat pane closed, and there is a conversation going on in your meeting, a "sparkle" appears next to the chat control like this:

• Shared Items -- Shows file items that have been or are currently being shared or (for an event-based meeting) a list of file items attached to the event. The list updates when you add file attachments to the event (when you refresh the Shared Items pane).

• Participants -- A list of current participants along with their associated annotation colors. The list updates each time a participant enters or leaves a meeting.

You can open and close the side panes in your meeting window:

• To open a side pane, click its name or its plus sign ()

• To close a side pane, click its minus sign ().

• To expand the whiteboard/display area to fill the entire width of the meeting window below the meeting controls, you can close all three side panes.

• On the right, below the meeting controls, is the main display area, which shows one of three panes:

• Whiteboard -- Shows annotations drawn by meeting participants.

• Application -- Shows a shared file item or desktop, which participants can annotate.

• Presentation -- Shows a presentation, which participants can annotate, one screen at a time.

Note: It's up to meeting participants to collaborate on a process for assuming and transferring editing control of a shared file or desktop. Examples of ways to coordinate such sharing include having a meeting agenda ahead of time, using the meeting Chat pane, or holding a conference telephone call during the meeting.

Annotation tools

All participants can use meeting annotation tools to mark up the whiteboard, or the display of a shared file, desktop, or presentation. Your markup appears all in the same color, which is determined by the order in which you join a meeting. To see the colors representing other participants, click "participants" in the control bar.
 

Meeting control tools

When you have control in a meeting, you have access to tools that let you manage the content of the display area.

• "Control:" drop-down list -- Pick the name of a participant to whom you want to pass control to. If you are sharing a file, your desktop, or a presentation, you remain the "owner" and can reclaim control by pick your own name from the list.

• "Share desktop" -- Click to share your desktop and display it in the presentation pane.

• "End sharing" -- Click to stop sharing a file, desktop, or presentation that you originally shared into the meeting

In addition, these tools are available to the participant with control in the meeting.

Keeping track of meetings

eRoom helps you organize your time by providing a list of current and upcoming real-time meetings. Go to the front page of your eRoom and click at the top. The Meetings & Events page opens.

Meetings & Events page

On this page

• The All Current Meetings section shows any instant or event-based meetings currently running in the eRoom. Click an event icon to open its page. To return to the Meetings & Events page from an Event page associated with an unscheduled (instant) meeting, click your browser's "Back" button, or click "up a level" (). From the Event page on which a currently running meeting is based, click the "Back" button. If you click "up a level", you open the parent calendar page instead.

• The All Scheduled Meetings & Events section shows any calendar events in all calendars in the eRoom, that are scheduled to start in the near future. eRoom defines the 'near future' as between now and a week from next Sunday, or approximately the next two weeks.

The items you see listed on the Meetings & Events page are either just those in which you are a participant, or all those to which you have at least Open rights. To switch between seeing a list of just your meetings and events and all meetings and events, click "mine" or "all" (respectively), just like on a calendar page.  

Note: If real-time meetings are not available in your eRoom, the button replaces the button, and it goes to the eRoom's Events page, which lists upcoming calendar events only.

Getting ready for a meeting

Here are some things to consider when you prepare for a meeting.

Meeting participants and scheduling

Think of all the eRoom members, groups, and roles who need to participate. If your site allows non-eRoom-members to participate in real-time meetings (determined by a site setting), obtain email addresses for those individuals you would like to have participate. For an instant meeting, make a list of participants before you start the meeting.

To schedule a meeting in advance (or a regularly occurring meeting), create a calendar event and specify the appropriate participants (eRoom members and, if allowed, non-members). Then, when you start the meeting from that event page, the meeting already has its title and list of participants.

You can add participants once the meeting is in progress, but if you already know who needs to attend, it saves time to add them to the event's participant list in advance.

Tip: If you sync your calendar events with Outlook, you can use Outlook to be automatically reminded of upcoming event-based meetings.

File items for sharing

Think about any information in files you want to share with meeting participants. Locate the files and put them in an easy-to-reach spot in your eRoom.

For event-based meetings, put appropriate file items in the event's attachment box so they are automatically included on the list of shared items when you start the meeting. However, you can still share into a meeting file items outside of the event's attachments.

Note: If you plan to share sensitive or confidential items, keep in mind that meeting participants can have whatever access you can grant them (view or edit, according to your own access rights and whether you allow remote control), even if those members do not have those rights outside of the meeting.

Desktop sharing

For sharing a desktop application that runs outside of your eRoom, you might want to start the application ahead of time so it is already running when you want to share it.

Starting a meeting

Summary of starting an instant meeting

Note: The first time you start or enter a real-time meeting, eRoom asks you to verify that it's "OK" to install and run the real-time meeting applet on your computer. This is an industry-standard authentication certificate, and you can safely click "Yes".

Including participants outside of eRoom

If your site allows it (via an option in the eRoom MMC snap-in), you can include non-eRoom members as participants in your real-time meetings. However, their participation is limited in these ways:

• They cannot share a file or a desktop.

• The Shared Files pane is hidden from them.

• Their presence does not keep the meeting open. That is, the meeting ends when the last eRoom member leaves, regardless of whether non-members are still there or not.

To start an instant meeting:

1. Go to the Meetings & Events page by clicking in the eRoom button bar.

2. Click "new meeting".

The Create Meeting page opens in which you provide details about the meeting.

3. Click "OK" to begin the meeting.

To provide meeting details:

1. On the Create Meeting or Share into Meeting page, edit the meeting's title if you want to change it.

2. For a private meeting, you can keep it from appearing on the Meetings & Events page for non-participating members (except for coordinators and administrators) by selecting the "Hide this meeting..." check box.

Note: If you start an event-based meeting by clicking the "start meeting" button on the Event page, you cannot hide the meeting from non-participating members.

3. Use the member picker () to search for or pick other eRoom members (individual members, groups, or roles) that you want to participate.

If non-eRoom members are permitted to participate in real-time meetings, type in the Non-members box the email addresses for those you want to invite, separating their addresses with semicolons (;) or commas (,).

Note: If you start an event-based meeting by clicking the "start meeting" button on the Event page, the meeting's initial participants are the same as the event's participants.  

4. Specify whether you want to notify meeting participants.

• Pick By email to alert both eRoom members and non-members.

• Pick Do not send an alert if all participants are eRoom members, and you prefer to invite them in a different way (by telephone, for example).

Note: Non-members cannot participate unless they receive an email alert.

5. If you are sending an alert, edit the Subject and Message as appropriate.

6. Click "OK" to send the alert (if any) and to begin the meeting.

To start an event-based meeting:

1. If you are on an event's list of participants, and you are not currently attending another meeting, go to the Event page and click "start meeting" at the top.

Or, on the Calendar page, right-click the event and pick "Enter Meeting" from the pop-up menu.

Or, on the Meetings & Events page, right-click the event and pick "Enter Meeting" from the pop-up menu, or select the event and click "enter meeting" in the command bar.

Note: If it is more than an hour before the event's scheduled start time, eRoom asks you to confirm that you want to start early. If you confirm, the rest of the meeting start sequence continues. If you cancel, you go back to the page from which you started.

2. The meeting takes its title from the name of the event, and its list of participants is the same as the event's, so the Meeting Alert page opens. Pick how you want to notify participants, as above.

3. If you are sending an alert, edit the subject and message as appropriate, and then click "OK" to send the alert and begin the meeting.

When a meeting begins

The meeting window opens, the meeting begins, and other participants can join in.

If you started the meeting by sharing a file, the file opens into the appropriate application (for example, Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel), or converts to presentation format if you are displaying a Microsoft PowerPoint file as a slide show, and appears in the meeting window.

Unless you picked "Do not send an alert", all participants who can be alerted, excluding you (the meeting starter) are immediately notified in the appropriate manner.

• When participating eRoom members receive their alerts, they can click the link it contains, log into the appropriate eRoom, and join the meeting.

• When participating non-members receive an email alert, they can click the link it contains and go directly to the real-time meeting window, bypassing the eRoom from which it was started.

For each instant or event-based meeting that is currently running, an event item appears under the "All Current Meetings" section of the Meetings & Events page for the duration of the meeting. The item is visible to any eRoom member from whom the meeting is not hidden. Members who can see the meeting can open its event page to enter the meeting.

Note: When you run an event-based meeting, you cannot edit the parent event until the meeting ends.

Joining a meeting

If you are on a meeting's participant list, if you receive an instant or email alert inviting you to join a meeting, or if you are an eRoom coordinator or administrator, you can join a running meeting in one of the following ways:

• Click the link in the instant alert or email alert to go to the eRoom where the meeting is taking place.

• Go to the Meetings & Events page and either

• Right-click a current meeting and pick "Enter Meeting" from the pop-up menu.

• Select a current meeting and click "enter meeting" in the command bar at the bottom.

• Open the current meeting and click "enter meeting" in the control bar at the top

• Open a calendar that has an event associated with a currently running meeting, and either

• right-click the event and pick "Enter Meeting" from its pop-up

• open the event and click "enter meeting" in the control bar at the top

• If you have the plug-in installed and you have at least Open rights to a file you want to share into a meeting, right-click the file and pick "Share into Meeting" command from the file's pop-up menu. (See Sharing file items below.)

Once you enter a meeting, you must keep your meeting window open in order to remain connected to it.

Note: If you are unable to join a running meeting in which you are a participant, go to the Meetings & Events page and click "test" in the command bar. This button checks your client's ability to connect with the server. One of the requirements, for example, is that you must have Java enabled for your browser.

Chatting with participants

When you first enter a meeting, the chat pane is open in the meeting window. It shows text-based messages prefaced with senders' names, and it scrolls vertically when messages reach the bottom of the window.

To send a text message to all meeting participants:

1. At the bottom of the chat pane, pick "All Users" (the default).

2. In the Send box, type your message and press Enter.

In the chat pane, your name appears with your message on the next line.

To talk privately with another participant:

1. From the "To" drop-down list in the chat pane, pick the member's name.

2. Type your message in the Send box and press Enter.

In the Chat pane, your name appears, followed by the recipient's name (in brackets), with your message on the next line. The same message also appears only in the recipient's Chat pane.

Adding participants

If you have Edit rights to an event-based meeting, or if you started an instant meeting, or are a coordinator or administrator, you can add participants while the meeting is running.

To add meeting participants:

1. In the Participant's pane of the meeting window, click "add participants".

Or, on the Event page for an instant or event-based meeting in progress, click "add participants".

Or, on the Meetings & Events page, right-click the icon for a running meeting and pick "Access Control" from the pop-up menu.

Or select the meeting and click "access" in the command bar.

2. Choose participants (as above).

3. Specify how you want to notify the meeting participants (as above).

4. Click "OK" to send the alert (if any) and begin the meeting.

Sharing a file

You can share a file and start an instant meeting at the same time, or (if you have control in a meeting) you can share a file once you are already participating in a meeting, if these conditions apply:

• The file is in your eRoom.

• You are using eRoom with the browser plug-in.

• You have at least Open rights to the file.

• The file is not currently being shared in another meeting. If the file is being shared for editing in one meeting, it can only be shared for viewing in another, unless the coordinator overrides the edit reservation.

• Nothing else is currently being shared in your meeting (file or desktop).

When you share a file into a meeting, you can either

• Share for viewing - Participants can view but not save edits to it. If you only have Open rights to a file, you can only share it as read-only.

• Share for editing -- The file is marked "Reserved for editing" in the eRoom, and any meeting participant can edit it (even observers and members who otherwise lack Edit rights to the item).

Note: In order to share a file into a meeting for editing, you must have Edit rights to it, and the file cannot be marked Reserved for editing or Read-only.

When you share a Microsoft PowerPoint file into a meeting, you have these options:

• Display it as a slide show -- Presents the file in the display pane of the meeting window as a presentation, or series of read-only screens, with none of the application's navigation or viewing tools available.

• Open it for editing in PowerPoint -- Launches the application and shares the file for editing, as above.

• Open it for viewing in PowerPoint -- Launches the application and shares the file just for viewing, as above.

Participants can mark up the display of a shared file by using the meeting window's annotation tools.

When a participant saves a file while editing it remotely during a shared editing session, the file is saved back to the eRoom in the original sharer's name.

Whether you share a file as read-only or for editing, your actions are simultaneously displayed in all participants' meeting windows.

As the member hosting the shared file, you have the ability to pass and reclaim editing control, and to end sharing of that file.

To start an instant meeting and share a file at the same time (plug-in only):

1. Right-click a file item and pick "Share into Meeting".

The Share into Meeting page opens.

2. If you have Edit rights to the file (and as long as the file isn't marked Read-only or Reserved for editing), pick whether you want to edit it online or just show it.

If you only have Open rights, or if the file is Read-only or Reserved for editing (for example, if the file is being shared for editing in another meeting), you can still share the file but not for editing.

3. Specify the meeting's details, and then click "OK" to send an alert (if any) to participants, and to begin the meeting.

Note: If you open a file for sharing and a dialog box asks which window corresponds to the file you want to share, pick the appropriate window from the list of the title bars for all applications currently running on your machine.

To share a file while in a meeting (event-based meetings only):

1. Add to the event's attachment box the file(s) you want to share, either before or after the meeting begins.

2. In the "shared items" pane of the meeting window, you can share a file as read-only by clicking its name or by right-clicking its icon and picking View shared. If you have Edit rights to the item and want to share an editable version of the file, right-click its icon and pick Edit shared from the pop-up menu.

From a page in your eRoom, right-click the icon for the item you want to share and pick "Share into meeting" from the pop-up menu. The Share into Meeting page opens.

3. On the Share into Meeting page, pick whether you want to Edit it online or Just show it.

If you only have Open rights to a file, or if it is marked Read-only, or if it is already Reserved for editing, or if you are sharing a PowerPoint file as a slide show, you can only share it into a meeting as read-only.

If you share a file for editing, and some of the meeting participants only have Open rights to the item, eRoom notifies you and lets you either cancel the share or proceed anyway. In the meeting window, the participant with editing control of a shared file can edit and save it (changes are saved under the sharer's name).

Note: Any meeting participant can see (or edit, if allowed) a file shared into a meeting, even if they don't have the plug-in installed.

To pass control of a shared file:

• If you are sharing a file into a meeting and you want to pass control to another participant, pick a name from the "control" drop-down menu in the control bar of the meeting window.  

To reclaim control of a shared file:

• If you have passed control to another participant of a file you shared into the meeting, you can reclaim it by picking your name from the "control" drop-down menu, or by pressing the ESC key.

To end file sharing:

• If you shared a file into a meeting, you end the share by closing the file.

Or, click "end sharing" in the control bar of the meeting window.

When file sharing ends, the display pane empties and all annotations disappear. When you end file sharing using the "end sharing" control, the file you shared remains open on your desktop until you (optionally) save it and close it as usual.

Note: If you have control of a file, but another participant shared it into the meeting, leaving the meeting by closing your meeting window reverts control back to the person who shared the file.

Sharing a desktop

Sharing a desktop means one participant can share any program running on his or her computer, and other participants can see it in operation. Other members can accept control passed to them and work with the program as if it were running on their own computers. Desktop sharing is also a useful way to share eRoom items that are not files, such as databases.

You can share your desktop into a running meeting as long as nothing else is currently being shared in your meeting (file or desktop).

Participants can mark up the display of a shared desktop by using the meeting window's annotation tools.

If you have control of a desktop, but you are not its host (initial sharer), leaving the meeting by closing your meeting window reverts control to the desktop's owner.

To share your desktop:

• In the control bar of the meeting window, click "share desktop".

The front window on your desktop is displayed in all meeting windows.

To pass control of your shared desktop:

• To pass control of your shared desktop to another member, pick a name from the "control" drop-down menu in the control bar of the meeting window.

The member controlling your desktop can operate it (opening and closing applications and saving files, for example) almost as if it were her own.

To reclaim control of your shared desktop:

• If you have passed to another member control of your shared desktop, you can reclaim it by picking your name from the "control" drop-down menu, or by pressing the ESC key.

To end desktop sharing:

• Whether you have control of your shared desktop, or someone you passed it to has control, you can end sharing of your desktop it by clicking "end sharing" in the control bar.

When desktop sharing ends, the display pane empties and all annotations disappear.

Observing a meeting

If you have an Observer role in your eRoom (you can read items, but not create or edit them), you can join a real-time meeting if you are included on its participant list. You can't start a meeting, end a meeting, or add participants. Once you are in a meeting, you can chat with other participants and can also accept editing or display-only control of a shared file or desktop.

Leaving a meeting

To leave a meeting, just close the meeting window. You can reenter a meeting that is still running in the same manner you joined it.

Ending a meeting

If you have Edit rights to the event on which a current meeting is based, or if you started an instant meeting, or if you are a coordinator or administrator, you can end a meeting by clicking "end meeting" on the Event page of a current meeting (instant or event-based). Other actions that immediately end running meetings are:

• deleting a current meeting (instant or event-based)

• deleting a calendar event while a meeting based on that event is in progress

All meetings end when the last participating eRoom member closes the meeting window.

When a meeting ends, any participant with a meeting window still open sees a message that the meeting has ended. eRoom also removes the meeting from the list of current meetings.

Meeting transcripts

When an event-based meeting ends, eRoom automatically saves a transcript of the following:

• public entries in the chat pane

• shared file pages still open

• annotations in the whiteboard

• presentations

When a meeting transcript is available, "view transcript" and "clear transcript" buttons appear at the top of the Event page from which a meeting (now ended) was previously started.

You can review a saved transcript without restarting a meeting by clicking "view transcript". The transcript opens in a read-only viewer in which you can browse.

You can use the same procedure as above to restart an event-based meeting, and use its saved transcript to resume working from where a meeting ended. For example, go the event page from which an ended meeting was previously run. The "transcript" buttons at the top indicate that a transcript is available. Click "start meeting". eRoom reloads the last meeting's chat pane and shared file pages in the state they were in when that meeting ended so you can resume working as usual.

To remove the saved transcript from an ended meeting, go to the event page on which the meeting was based and click "clear transcript". After you confirm, the transcript is deleted and the "transcript" buttons no longer appear.