This page seeks to track possible technology related issues noted by the At-Large Technology Taskforce Working Group and the At-Large Community for raising with ICANN Staff.
Current Technology Issues
(See discussion-of-LACRALO-mailing-list-issues for a deeper background behind this issue.) IN PROGRESS 2019 - Two critical issues have been noted on the discussion-of-LACRALO-mailing-list-issues page : missing emails from the lacralo-es to lacralo-en list ; and the general error message "Sentence punctuation must be followed by a space" not specifiying where in emails the error occurs. ICANN IT has a new developer looking at the code to see the bugs. The discussion-of-LACRALO-mailing-list-issues page has other ideas / workarounds for the tool. Background The TTF filed a budget request to the At-Large FBSC in FY17 for ICANN to finance the hiring of a programmer to assist the volunteer ICANN staff member to fix outstanding bugs - see At-Large FY17 Budget Development Workspace , this was approved by the At-Large FBSC and filed with ICANN Finance. On the 2016-08-08 At-Large Technology Taskforce Call, ICANN Staff member Corinna Ace confirmed that a programmer/developer has been hired to sort out the remaining bugs. To test the new translation tool, two test email lists: new-transbot-en and new-transbot-es were created and TTF volunteers and ICANN staff joined these lists to test the translation and to report bugs at discussion-of-LACRALO-mailing-list-issues page. New versions of the translation tool were deployed to these transbot lists in late Dec 2016 and March 2017. The March 2017 update introduced new features Since ICANN59, the TTF chairs have been discussing with Mark Segall and Corinna Ace from ICANN IT and with Silvia Vivanco and Mario Aleman from ICANN At-Large Staff on implementing the new version of the translation tool developed by ICANN IT on the existing LACRALO mailing lists. The tool was deployed to the main LACRALO lists on October 6 2017.Description of Issue Status of Issue Updated Solution / Workarounds LACRALO mailing list issues
To minimize the issue of persons posting to both lists at the same time which would create problems, members of LACRALO will be asked via online survey at https://goo.gl/forms/sEOEWqacRYLPk2Xc2 to indicate
* which lac discuss list do you wish to RECEIVE emails from (English, Spanish, or both)
* which lac discuss list do you wish to be able to SEND emails to. You can post to one list.
A conference call for LACRALO members was held on Tuesday Sept 5 2017 (see recordings at https://community.icann.org/x/yh8hB) to raise awareness of the planned changes to the translation tool used for the LACRALO mailing lists and what persons on the LACRALO lists need to do to prepare for the changes.
Issues regarding Zoom
| Description of Issue | Status of Issue | Updated | Solution / Workarounds |
|---|---|---|---|
For meetings that have multiple audio streams (when interpretation) is done, would attendees have the ability to select which audio channel (EN, FR, ES, etc) to be able to listen and respond in?(submitted by Dev Anand Teelucksingh ) Do they have to be dialed into the Phone Bridge or could they use the computer Audio? How would this work? | IN PROGRESS | ||
Will we be able to get automatic transcripts of Zoom recorded At-Large meetings?(Submitted by Dev Anand Teelucksingh) And Judith Hellerstein The feature is outlined here : https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115004794983-Automatically-Transcribe-Cloud-Recordings- - it would be good if this is enabled as a rough transcript can be provided immediately after the meeting.z The GNSO seems to be able to put up the transcripts using the machine translation facility for recordings in the cloud, but not sure why At Large cannot. If machine transcriptions are allowed and approved by Language services than they should be allowed for all SO/ACs | IN PROGRESS | Staff has the ability to generate transcripts from Zoom recordings. | |
| Currently, users cannot see the chats that had occurred prior to their arriving, but Zoom is looking at a work around? When will users be able to see the chat that occurred prior to their arriving | IN PROGRESS | ||
How can a person using a screen reader access the content on the shared screen in Zoom? --Muhammad Shabbir. | IN PROGRESS | One solution is that all speakers/presenters also post to the chat a link to the comments that they are sharing through zoom screen sharing. IT needs to make sure that all staff take this step in all zoom calls | |
Is Zoom using the Google Automatic captioning using artificial Intelligence for its Captioning or RTT or is it using another protocol? (submitted by Judith Hellerstein ) | RESOLVED | According to https://www.icann.org/news/blog/automated-transcripts-from-zoom-at-icann65 , "This feature is powered by Otter.ai, an AI solution which partnered with Zoom for transcription." | |
| If people signed up for the free zoom account will they be able to continue to see the chats after the call? Can they continue chatting on a specific topic after the call? | IN PROGRESS | ||
Zoom Performance on mid range handsets
| |||
Will the Speakers be able to see the order that hands are raised in Zoom Submitted by Ricardo Holmquist. I was under the impression this was fixed for ICANN's version of Zoom (the raised hands will be shown in the order that they were raised). | RESOLVED | Staff / Hosts of Zoom Meetings can see the order of hands raised. Community Members who are presenting must be made a host of the meeting to see order of the hands raised |
Adobe Connect Issues
Specific issues/challenges for Adobe Connect are to be noted here "(submitted by Seun Ojedeji[community.icann.org]) It will be great to have a chat-only pod for adobe connect. Considering the recent improvement with AC, is this may be a good feature to explore; It will be useful for participants who are on dial-out (but bandwidth limited) to follow the chat as well." Something I discovered while participating remotely in ICANN64 - with Adobe Connect's inability to offer different audio streams, there are audio links to multiple languages like these : However, when the URLs are shared in the Adobe Connect room, its appears like this the poorly linked (and broken) URL then gives problems to those remote participants trying to be in the Adobe Connect room and listen to different audio streams. Apple phones do appear to open and play the .m3u files. Furthermore, for desktop users, opening .m3u files can be confusing (VLC media player can open the files) but many persons may not have it installed. iPhones seem to be able to play the playlist - since the m3u file contains the direct stream - for example http://stream.icann.org:8000/kix64-ohwadab-es.m3u contains http://stream.icann.org:8000/kix64-ohwadab-es and this link does play (at least during the meeting) - perhaps these links should be presented to desktop browsers during the live meeting Perhaps ICANN should use a URL shortener at stream.icann.org - so links could be like the ability to export Adobe Connect recordings from Flash only recordings to formats like MP4 which can be edited and put on video sharing websites for easier resharing and accessible to the At-Large community. This is important because Adobe Connect recordings in Flash are unplayable on mobile and tablet devices. Additionally, At Large would like to cut out portions of some of our current webinars as we prepare new webinars for Atlas 3. Having MP4 recordings makes this much easier. Also, playing an Adobe Connect recording on a PC with Flash installed is cumbersome compared with experiences on video sharing websites. Adobe Flash will no longer be developed after 2020. IN PROGRESS Update September 15 2017 - At ICANN59, Billy Einkamerer noted that YouTube supports FLV uploads. Mario made available a FLV video of the TTF session at ICANN59 (a 342MB file) and video was uploaded by Dev Anand Teelucksingh to YouTube. Erika Mann reported on today's CCWG Auction call a problem with her adobe with her not being able to see chats and also to see the main panel despite her downloading the Adobe add in IN PROGRESS Mark Segall and Sara Caplis can you check in with Erika and help her solve this problem. If we had a separate form she could fill out it would greatly help to figure out what her issue was Voiceover does not work with the current version of Adobe Connect. Blind users must use a desktop to connect but most people are using mobiles IN PROGRESS Mark Segall to find out with Sara Caplis and her team when this will occur Find out from Adobe when they will be supporting Voice Over? Will this support be in the newer version and if so perhaps we could update to it Of recent, several At-Large conference calls have had more connectivity problems: IN PROGRESS Mark Segall will follow up on this issue Sara Caplis will develop a form where people can log in and document their Adobe Connect issues and the form will be sent to Staff to follow up. Polling in Adobe Connect can't be seen by mobile users, challenges with creating questions to select multiple answers The At-Large Captioning Project conducted surveys during the captioning trials of several calls in FY16. However, the polling in Adobe Connect has several issues: Staff are now trained on how to do surveys with multiple choice options and have done it successfully. However, there have been cases where staff accidentally checked the wrong button and as a result, the ability to choose multiple answers is taken away. Adobe Connect has a feature to customise the message when the Adobe Connect session ends and also point to a URL when the user acknowledges the message. So by linking to a mobile friendly survey tool, we can mitigate the problems of polls in Adobe Connect. To be tested by the TTF in December. Supposedly has been fixed but need to verify NOT RESOLVED Currently there is NOT an option to have more than one audio channel within Adobe Connect. I have explored many options to try to resolve this issue, as I understand the concerns this group has, and I too would like to see these features with adobe connect. Some options I have tried, utilizing the breakout sessions, which DOES split up the audio into difference bridges, however, there is no option for an interpreter to be able to bridge across two language breakouts to be able to do their job. The only way to have multi channel audio currently with adobe connect is to link to an outside service, similar to how we are currently managing multi-language streaming. There is a bit of a flaw in this thought process to have multiple languages all in the English based adobe connect room. The true way this is intended to work, and was utilized by ICANN with NETmundial, is to provide each adobe connect room in the native language. For example, you have English, French and Spanish Adobe Connect rooms (all separate dedicated rooms), which are tied to the phone bridge for the respective languages. This allows when a Spanish speaking person logs into the Spanish Adobe Connect, they hear, read and see Spanish, and when a user speaks in English, the Spanish room hears the Spanish interpreters. Having done this myself for NETmundial, this is logistically very challenging, and requires many staff to make this happen. In my example, you would need three operators (one for each language), three Remote Participation managers, one for each room, and fluent in the respective room language to answer chat comments etc. You would also need the three interpreters, one for each room. Not to mention, the content to be shared in each room, also needs to be translated into the respective room language. This is an example of a perfect world, but at this point is not technically feasible nor manageable from a labor standpoint. So to round this conversation point, currently the technology provided by Adobe Connect does not permit the feature you are looking for. Adobe Connect keeps crashing when doing screen share. (noted by Ariel Liang on her Mac) NOT RESOLVED NOT RESOLVED In the last week, I (Judith Hellerstein) have been unable to hear sound in my adobe connect on a Mac using 10.9.5. I cannot hear but have not tried to speak so not sure if mike works. I have tried this in multiple browsers, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome and cannot hear in any of these browsers. I have updated the adobe connect add on and the flash addins. Also when I am in the AC room, Adobe kills sound on everything during the call, including Skype tones when chats arrive or when email comes ins. Sound works fine in Webex and other conferencing programs. Also Sound works fine when using the Adobe Connect app in the iPad so it seems to be an incompatibility with the OS I am using and the adobe plug in. Adobe has a new desktop app to run adobe connect recordings. This should resolve many of these issues. It can be found here: http://www.adobe.com/go/Connectsetup for Windows NOT RESOLVED I (Glenn McKnight ) was on adobe in the morning for DIPLO and no problem When i tried via my desktop( new IBM Workstation, running upto date Windows 10, up to date Anti Malware and Anti Virus . ) it prompted me download the addon . Three times without success, didn't enter. Had to join via Laptop.( No different OS )Name of Person and Description of Adobe Connect Issue Status of Issue Updated Solution / Workarounds Convoluted Streaming audio URLs at ICANN meetings and broken when shared in Adobe Connect
http://stream.icann.org/kix64-ohwadab-esMaking Adobe Connect Recordings accessible on mobile devices
However the ZIP file contains a lot of FLV and XML files. So putting together a sequence of FLVs and converting to MP4 appears to be challenging.
Another workaround - have someone with sufficient internet bandwidth livestream their desktop screen showing the Adobe Connect room. The challenge is the "sufficient internet bandwidth to both be in the AC room and livestreaming to YouTube at the same time. .
March 2019 Voiceover in Adobe Connect (Accessibility)
Feb 2019 Reporting Adobe Connect connectivity issues
May 2017 Mobile users connecting to Adobe Connect can't see when someone has shared their screen in Adobe Connect The same is true with skype. Ability to select different audio channels in Adobe Connect. Many conference calls have interpretation on different Adigo channels but only one audio channel can be broadcast in Adobe Connect. ICANN IT says there is no workaround - only one audio channel can be selected in Adobe Connect
According to Josh Baulch in an email:Adobe Connect's tool bar, which includes the chat, queue, audio column, attendees' list, disappears when doing screen share. Adobe Connect sound issues 5 June 2017 Adobe recently updated Adobe connect and reworked how it uses plugins. Browsers with pop-up blockers enabled were unable to activate their mikes and the problem is not obvious. Solution is to disable popup blocker, install plugin and run. This seems to address the problem on Chrome. Unknown on other browsers. Adobe Connect Sound Issues
For Mac: http://www.adobe.com/go/ConnectSetupMacAdobe Connect failure to connect Adobe Connect freezing, closing down and restarting 16 Nov 2017 I (Maureen Hilyard) have just come off an Auction Proceeds meeting (90 mins) and at least a half a dozen times during the call, the AC froze so that I could still hear the audio but I couldn't type anything, and then the whole programme would shut down and instantly restart.. This happened in the majority of cases. A couple of times it just faded and disconnected and then reconnected.. On several occasions when it froze, I was trying to write in the chat and couldn't do so, so that by the time my proposed intervention could be included in the chat, the discussion was onto a fresh topic and it became redundant. Frustrating!! It could be atmospheric cos I know there is a storm around but it passed us during the afternoon - its 5.30 am now, but otherwise Im just rrying to make excuses for it ! In Mobile, iPhone and Ipad, Adobe loses audio and drops when on wifi. 27 Feb 2018 On the ALAC call, when I logged in to the call using wifi, but very close to the router. The app kept dropping me even thought my connectivity was high. Seemed if it flickered for one moment it was enough to drop the connection.
Resolved Technology Issues
The following table are for RESOLVED Technology Issues The current version of Confluence allows for collaborative capabilities in writing pages and this would be very helpful to At Large members as we write policy statements and other documents that are stored on our wiki. We also asked for the current version of Confluence to be updated to the new version We discussed this on the February 2019 TTF call and were told that the reason it was not turned on and that the version of Confluence was not updated was because this feature caused several breaks in links on the current version and that IT was looking at this issue. We asked Mark Segall to update us on this issue. After the wiki hack incident around April 2019, the latest version of Confluence was installed and the collaborative editing feature turned on. RESOLVED Whilst several tools have been identified as potential tools that could be useful for At-Large, currently we have to ask volunteers to donate hosting and to configure such server resources. Such persons are rare in At-Large and are typically busy persons to assist with the deployment of such tools for At-Large Testing. Whilst Mattermost testing has now begun thanks to a volunteer, the more complex eXo platform testing has not started. Workaround : use Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Cloud Computing Services that provides 1 year for new Amazon customers. RESOLVED While working on the ICANN Stakeholder Analysis Tool , it was noted that a lack of consistent HTML used to display ALSes information on the At-Large website (https://atlarge.icann.org/alses/afralo ; https://atlarge.icann.org/alses/apralo ; https://atlarge.icann.org/alses/euralo ; https://atlarge.icann.org/alses/lacralo ; https://atlarge.icann.org/alses/naralo ) hampered retrieval of information into the tool. See Lack of consistent HTML on ICANN At-Large website (ALS information) .pdf which documents the missing HTML pairs when ALS information was missing. RESOLVED Remote participation in ICANN F2F meetings. There are significant challenges for remote participation The RALO literature is devoid of speciality email addresses ie. chair@naralo.org and secretariat@naralo.org Staff has said for security reasons it can't be done. Resolved this issue by creating a list serve Naralo-Leadership@icann.org. From Mark Segall : ....However, what has changed is the ability to “Send As” this address. The security team has made several changes to this function throughout our services ecosystem to reduce risk of phishing. So if anyone wishes to be able to send as chair@naralo.org, we will need to work with the individual(s) to configure VPN. Resolved-- UNRESOLVED (submitted by Sarah Kiden Feb. 20) Adigo Call quality has really be dropping. Sarah reports that in some calls her call has dropped several times and in the past the quality was not so bad. Many other people have reported a significant increase in the number of calls dropped by adigo (submitted by Satish Babu) - the dial-out quality for most conference calls are quite poor and practically unintelligeble for 60-70% of the time. The device used at my end is my mobile phone, which works ok for normal calls. Can something be done about this? The AC room audio is much better (in listen-only mode), although it's somewhat noisy if I try to speak at peak hours. @Olivier COlivier Crepin Leblond also has had numerous problems with the quality of the callsStatus of Issue Updated Description of Issue Solution / Workarounds Turn on Collaboration Capabilities in Confluence
Having server resources available to test open source solutions like Mattermost, eXo
Can ICANN assist with proving server resources?ICANN IT noted the issue and scheduled a fix in late July / early August 2018. The fix was deployed and the ICANN Stakeholder Analysis Tool is now able to retrieve all At-Large information automatically. When At-Large persons with Yahoo email addresses post to At-Large mailing lists, their emails are received as spam messages by other persons on the mailing list.
In Gmail, the emails recevied from Yahoo email addresses have his message in the spam folder
"Why is this message in Spam? It has a from address in yahoo.com but has failed yahoo.com's required tests for authentication. Learn moreICANN Staff plans to install updates to mailman to support DMARC. See http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/at-large/2015q4/004153.html Mark Segall has responded to this issue in May 2016 : Sept 21, 2016
I followed up internally on the request for aliased email addresses (the last recorded issue on the AL-TTF Issues page dated 21 Sep) they have provided confirmation that these email addresses do still exist in the form of a mailman distribution list.....Adigo dial out quality
We asked Mark Segall to follow up on these issues with the Meetings team
