Uncategorized – GCMAS2022

Important Information for Participating Online

June 2, 2022June 2, 2022
by timniiler

Thank you for registering for GCMAS2022. We’re excited that this year’s conference is about to happen next Tuesday and Wednesday and wanted to send out a few reminders before hand to help make your experience smoother.

Technical Considerations

The conference is entirely online and requires a login to gcmas2022.org. This is NOT the same login as for gcmas.org as many of our conference participants are not GCMAS members. If you have not logged into gcmas2022.org lately, please do so this week so that if you have any problems with your login, we can help you in a timely manner and it does not become an emergency next week. If you are receiving this email, you have been added as a gcmas2022.org user – and if you DON’T know your password, it means that it somehow didn’t get to you. Some institutions are selectively filtering password-recovery requests from our server, and as such, some users are not able to get in if they have lost their password, and some users never received their login credentials. If this is you, please email me (tim.niiler@gmail.com) so that I can manually set your password and get you into the system.

Another technical issue some users are having is that they have multiple accounts at gcmas2022.org in that they used one account to upload an abstract, and used another to register. Whereas authors have upload permissions on gcmas2022.org, they do not by default have meeting attendance permission. This takes registration. Check to be sure that when you login, you have access to the program. In particular, if you have registered for Day 1 only, you should see “Program – Day 1” when you click the “Program” item on the nav menu. If you have registered for Day 2 only, you should see “Program – Day 2”, and if you’ve registered for both days, you should see “Program – Days 1 and 2”. If you do not see what you expect here, it means that you will probably not have access to a Zoom room you might be planning on going to. Email me to update your permissions, and I will do so in accordance with your registration status.

If you are presenting, please be sure to update your version of Zoom (if possible). See this document for more information.

Navigating the Website

Once you are logged in, the “Program” page is your key way to find what you might be looking for. As you scroll down the page, the program will appear, and you can click on any button to see the papers within a session:

You can search for authors or keywords using the search box shown here.

You can also click on “Full Schedule” to see the schedule laid out in the traditional manner:

All cells in this table are clickable and will show you either the specific session papers as with the buttons -OR- will list all events of a given type. For example, clicking any of the Exhibitor boxes will show all of the exhibitors. Should you want a more visual presentation click on “Toggle Screenshots” and you will see the teasers for each paper. Mousing over any given screenshot will give you more information.

Podium Presentation Format

The podium sessions will all be in Zoom Room 1. Podium presenters will present either live or via video and have 8 minutes for their presentation. Afterwards, there will be 4 minutes for questions. Since the podium session will be Zoom webinar format, you will not see all the participants, only the panelists which includes tech administrators, moderators, and presenters for the current session. You should use the Q & A (Question and Answer) for questions related to the presentation. Other participants can upvote questions, and then the question may either be read by the moderator, or in some cases, we will turn on the questioner’s microphone so that you can ask the question live.

Presenters should show up for their sessions 10-15 minutes early whether using video or presenting live, and identify themselves to our Zoom tech, Natalie by raising your hand.You can access all podium abstracts via the “Program Link”. Each talk will have a PDF link at its lower right hand side. Clicking it will open the PDF in a new tab or window. At the end of the day, the podium presentations which were videos will have video links posted. At the end of the week (or early the next week), full session videos will be made available on the Program page.

Poster Presentation Format

The poster sessions will be in Zoom Room 2. Poster sessions were split into smaller pieces this year so as not to overlap other content as much as in the past. Each poster presenter has created a 3 minute video. For each poster session the first three videos will be played in a row, and then the moderators will ask each of the first three authors one question. Then the next three videos will be played, and again the moderators will ask the poster presenters a single question each. Poster viewers are welcome to stay around afterward for further discussion with the poster presenters.

Alternatively, viewers can see the posters on their own ahead of time. You’ll note the icons shown at the bottom of each poster.

Each gives you a different viewpoint. Here is the key in order from left to right.

“+” – View the screenshot, enlarged

PDF – View the abstract

Image – View the PDF of the poster.

Camera – Start the Zoom session (Room 2) – only use this if you’re not already in a Zoom session.

Movie Play – View the 3 minute video

Poster board – Go to a dedicated poster page with attached realtime forum so that you can interact with other poster viewers or leave questions for the author.

These pages look something like this:

The icon on the left will let you post your comments or questions.

Summary

Most all of the conference materials are up and available for those who are logged in. Check that you can login this week so that if there are any difficulties, we can help you now when there’s time so that you don’t miss anything important. In the meantime, start browsing the materials if you haven’t already! If you have any general conference questions, please send them to Eric Dugan (eldugan@texaschildrens.org) and if there’s anything tech related, send it my way (tim.niiler@gmail.com).

We’re excited to see you again next week!

Tim NiilerGCMAS2022 Web Tech

Uncategorized

Important Zoom Considerations

May 22, 2022June 3, 2022
by timniiler

As with last year, if you are presenting, then it’s important that you set yourself up to succeed. Here are some of our best practices for presenters who are screensharing.

0) If you are screensharing and presenting yourself, we hope that you have come to a training over the last couple of weeks. Please confirm with us your intentions (email tim.niiler@gmail.com) in this regards so that Natalie our Zoom tech can keep things running smoothly.

Monday, May 23rd at Noon EDT
Tuesday, May 24th at 4pm EDT
Thursday, June 2nd at 6pm EDT
Friday, June 3rd at 10am EDT

1) Update your Zoom to the most recent version before the meeting: see this:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362233-Upgrading-Zoom-to-the-latest-version
2) Close all other non-essential windows on your computer. These run the risk of being shared by accident, and may cause you to take longer to find the window you wish to share.
3) Close non-essential tabs in the browser, especially any which have media playing. These will eat up your computer’s CPU and possibly lead to slow downs. Additionally, media tabs have the potential to block the microphone or camera if you need them.
4) Get a hard-wired connection if at all possible. While most of us are on Wifi, it is still not as reliable as plugging a network cable into your laptop.
5) If at home, be the sole network user at the time. Other people should not be using high bandwidth applications such as Zoom while you are presenting. NEW: Want to test your upstream bandwidth – you can do so here. Zoom lists the following: “For gallery view receiving: 2.0Mbps (25 views), 4.0Mbps (49 views)” for minimum upstream bandwidth considerations. Note that the more people who have their cameras on, the more bandwidth you need. This is one of the reasons the main room is in webinar format so that fewer people are onscreen at a time.
6) Use a headset if possible. This can help cancel out extraneous noise, but also means that your microphone’s audio quality will be better. Also, keep your mouth near the microphone and pointed in its direction. We had several presenters last year who kept looking away from their microphone while they spoke, and as a result, people had a hard time hearing them.
7) Consider your background. Try not to choose anything too distracting if you are using a Zoom filter, and if not, plain walls (green or blue) work the best. Also consider illuminating your face indirectly so that people can see you.
8) Have your presentation queued up and ready to go before the next speaker finishes.
9) Don’t be afraid to text Natalie or the moderator using the private chat if you have questions ahead of time.

Last year, things went really quite well, largely due to presenters being prepared well ahead of time. We look forward to seeing your presentations in June and wish you luck in your final preparations for the conference.

All the best,

Tim Niiler

Uncategorized

Video Files and Size Limitations

May 17, 2022May 17, 2022
by timniiler

In today’s age of ultra HD video capability, why not use the best resolution out there for your conference video? Shouldn’t we we promoting the hottest tech out there?

Well, the answer is complicated, but basically “no”, and I’d like to explain this for the curious.

1- Server Space:

Server space is not perhaps what you think it is. You have a home computer with perhaps 1000 GB of space on the hard drive, so you expect that web servers have more, right? GCMAS2022 is hosted with a well known company, SiteGround on their GrowBig plan.

Note that this allows us 20 GB of space and runs about $25/mo. If we were to upgrade to the biggest plan, we’d still get only 40 GB of space. We could go to their cloud offerings, but that would give us 160 GB of space – not a lot when it comes to video. So how do Amazon and Google have such storage spaces? They own server farms. We could rent space and do some complicated configuration, but let’s just say that’s really expensive. Ultimately, we host video files elsewhere for play since our provider, like most, requests that we dont stream from their servers.

2 – Local Network Performance

Generally your internet provider gives you much better downstream bandwidth than upstream bandwidth. In our neck of the woods (West Chester, PA), one provider gives us about 8-10 Mbs upstream while another gives about 10-14 Mbs upstream. The later claims they give 100 Mbs upstream, but measurements show otherwise. Even with commercial grade connections, upstream is limited. So if Natalie (who has a good connection) is trying to play your video and its really HD, it may hit some bumps in the road due to bandwidth. Remember that we haven’t paid the ISPs to have that fast lane like Netflix and Hulu have. So such high bandwidth may be throttled. This also can show up at your end, even if you have a high speed connection at your institution.

3 – Zoom Performance

Now remember that Zoom is trying to interact with this and is sharing CPU cycles with the broadcasting computer. This invariable leads to more glitches when there are more demands. This may lead to frame dropping, loss of sound or both. From a conference standpoint, these are undesirable.

4 – Screen Resolution

Remember that most of us aren’t actually watching on a 54″ plasma screen that can do justice to HD video formats. So all that extra information and detail in the video is lost. Also remember that most of us are presenting slides, not detailed videos, so the extra detail offered by all those extra pixels is not needed. It’s possible that some folks may even be logged on from their cell phones.

Conclusion

So if you haven’t submitted your video yet (required of poster authors, but optional for podium authors), you’ve missed the deadline – but we’ll still take it. However, poster authors who are late will run the risk of people passing your work by to look at posters with videos available. A standard definition video will do just fine and actually work quite well for video conferencing. Our limits are 120 MB for podium and 100 MB for poster videos.

Good luck, and we’ll see you in a couple of weeks.

-Tim N

Uncategorized

Uploading your work

March 25, 2022March 25, 2022
by timniiler

Online conferences have certain pros and cons when compared to those held in person. Among the cons is a distinct lack of socialization despite organizers best efforts. Zoom helps to connect us, but as humans, we often like to eat or drink as we socialize, and the inability to share a dish or sit at the same table is palpable. But there are pros as well.

Since many conferences have gone online, lots more conference materials have been made available to attendees before the conference, and it’s more likely that presentations are recorded for post-conference consumption. The ability of participants to participate asynchronously has exploded giving us all the ability to more deeply digest the material (as opposed to the local food).

We’ve been seeking to make materials available to attendees starting with the abstracts and then as more materials get uploaded, to make these available as well. Poster presenters have a bit more to do in that we ask them to record a video ahead of time as well as creating a three page spread for their poster. Podium presenters can make videos if they feel this will give them more control of their presentation or they can present live. In order to have several levels of redundancy, we are asking podium presenters to give us their powerpoints ahead of time to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Everyone will upload a screenshot of a hook slide so that we can try to garner more interest in talks visually. Yes, a good title is still important, but perhaps you also have a key result you want everyone to see going into it. (Note, this will not be the only way your work is presented, but it will be one of the options offered to people).

So how does it work? We have instructions for poster and podium authors separately.

Poster Authors

If I were a poster author, I would need to upload three things as noted below:

Screenshot from Poster Author instructions page.

Each upload button will take you to a different upload page (a nuance needed due to the file upload software). To upload a PDF of your 3 page poster presentation, click on “Upload PDF”. You’ll be taken to this page:

If you’re logged in, you’ll see the upload widget. If not, you should log in before proceeding. After you’ve selected your file, choose “Upload File” and a progress bar will indicate your upload status. At the end, you’ll see whether or not you’re successful. Remember to follow the filename conventions shown in the directions. If you make a mistake, just re-upload with the same filename, and it will overwrite the prior file.

If you need to upload the other file types, buttons linking to their upload pages have been placed below to aid in your navigation.

At this point, you will not be able to see your uploaded file or anyone else’s. We have turned off upload notifications in order to decrease the amount of email, we’re sending everyone. (However, if you all clamor for these, we’ll re-enable them). The plan is that for posters, at least, uploaded files will be made available by May 20th, a week after the upload deadline.

Podium Authors

The process is basically identical for podium authors, only you aren’t required to submit a video. Video submission for podium authors is made available in the case that you feel more comfortable that you can do a better job this way rather than presenting in person. Likewise, since we ask that all live presenters (those NOT doing videos) check in for a training session the week or two prior to the conference, you might feel that for you a video is a better option. While most of us have lots of Zoom experience, we still make mistakes in our live presentations, and the pre-conference “training” which lasts anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour dependent on your needs, can help us to keep live presentations running smoothly. Pre-conference training opportunities will be made available in May.

Your upload options are very similar to the poster upload options.

In this case, your presentation must be either ppt or pptx format rather than the PDF format of the poster. Remember that the poster PDFs are for online viewing and ppt/pptx formats are not web formats. Your ppt/pptx upload is to help us backstop you against problems with screensharing and the like. It will not be posted to the website (unless there is a real clamor for this). Likewise, videos of podiums are for playback during the presentation time slot. A conference video of your session will be posted 24-48 hours after you present on June 7-8. As with the posters, once you’ve uploaded one of the files, you’ll be given the option of uploading the others below.

Bottom Line

Get your files posted by May 13, 2022 so that we can assemble everything and have them ready for registered conference attendees to look at by May 20, 2022. We’ll let you know then everything is posted. In the meantime, good luck with your preparation, and don’t forget to register!

abstract submission

All you need to know about abstract submissions

December 12, 2021February 8, 2022
by timniiler

Welcome back! This year we’re moving on from OpenConf so as to avoid the confusion of having multiple websites for a single conference. This post is to help you submit an abstract to this new system.

Step 1: Read the “Call for Abstracts” and note the abstract templates. Every year, we have some submissions which do not follow these templates. In this case the program committee must decide whether the abstract has enough merit to return to the author for resubmission or reject.

Step 2: Write the abstract. 🙂 Convert it to a PDF.

Step 3: Login. If you have a login from last year, it has been imported to this year’s website, and you may have received an email letting you know you have a new WordPress login. If you don’t remember your password, but are still using the same email, you can ask for a password reset.

Step 4: Click on “Manage Abstracts” or else “Submit Abstract” from the bottom of the “Call for Abstracts” page. You’ll see the following form, but with your name. Click “+New Abstract“.

Step 5: Start filling out the form. Note that in this new system, you will need to list all the authors as shown below while also putting your name as submitting author at the lower right. Click the blue “+” sign to add additional authors.

You will also need to attach the PDF below “Choose File” and indicate the presenter’s name, email, and whether you’d like to submit as a Podium, Poster, or Tutorial. Also select the topic to help us to choose reviewers.

Once filled out, click the blue submit button at the top of the form, and you’re good to go.

Step 6: But wait! You forgot something, misspelled a coauthor’s name, or else had some other typo. In this case, be sure you’re logged in, and come to the “Manage Abstracts” page. You’ll see your abstracts listed in the table. Here’s where you use the “Edit” link as shown below.

Once you click “Edit” you’ll see an interface as follows:

Here is where you “Remove” the abstract to upload its replacement, or else edit the meta information, such as who the presenter is or who the authors are.

If, on the other hand, you wish to withdraw the abstract in its entirety, then you must contact me (tim.niiler@gmail.com) and I will do this from the Administrative Control Panel (the blue “Delete” button is currently faulty, and we are waiting for the plugin updates for a fix).

I hope this is helpful for you in getting used to the new system. Should you have any additional questions or problems, feel free to email me.

Good luck!

Tim Niiler

Category: Uncategorized

Important Information for Participating Online

Important Zoom Considerations

Video Files and Size Limitations

Uploading your work

Poster Authors

Podium Authors

Bottom Line

All you need to know about abstract submissions