Tomrrow, Friday May 21st, at 2:00pm Eastern (11:00am Pacific, 1800 GMT) we're going to be broadcasting the National Public Radio show "Talk of the Nation / Science Friday" out to the MBONE. Guests include Carl Malamud, Brewster Kahle, and Tim O'Reilly, with the topic being the Internet, how it is used, and the future of computer networking. Questions will also be fielded from the Internet during the show. People from outside of the continental U.S. are especially welcome, as it really stresses just how big the Internet is... In order to listen, you'll need a working MBONE tunnel and a vat compatible audio tool. Look for an 'sd' session named "Internet Town Hall." For those without sd, here's the session info: Internet Town Hall NPR "Talk of the Nation/Science Friday" program about the Internet. Address: 224.2.235.24, ttl 191 Media: vat pcm audio, port 45551, conf id 48217 If you'd like to direct a question to the program, things get a bit hairier. You'll need to look for two other sd sessions -- one labelled "Internet Town Hall Questions" and the other labelled "ITH -- Invitation Only." The session info for these is: Internet Town Hall Questions Address: 224.2.235.25, ttl 191 Media: vat pcm audio, port 45552, conf id 48218 ITH -- Invitation Only Address: 224.2.235.26, ttl 191 Media: vat pcm audio, port 45553, conf id 48219 The protocol for asking a question is as follows: 1) Open the "Internet Town Hall Questions" session from sd. You'll need to quit or deactivate the regular "Internet Town Hall" session to speak there. 2) When you join the "Internet Town Hall Questions" session, wait for a quiet moment and let Steve Deering (the Question Coordinator) know that you're around and interested in speaking on the show. He'll ask for your name, location, and the nature of your question. If he's able to hear you ok, he'll tell you to go ahead to step 3. 3) If you can be reasonably well heard at PARC, you will be told to quit your existing "Internet Town Hall" and "Internet Town Hall Questions" sessions and join "ITH -- Invitation Only." Once you've successfully done so, your name will be passed to the director of the show in New York to be put on the list of waiting callers. In this new session, you'll be able to hear the program, and should wait for the host to call your name, and then unmute your mike and go ahead. Hints for improving audio quality: * Use headphones if at ALL possible! They'll prevent unwanted echo, and allow a full duplex conversation between you and the host. * If you can't use headphones, make SURE that you are in "Speakerphone" mode, so that your microphone won't pick up & send what's coming out of your speakers. * Try and keep your microphone as far away as possible from fans and other sources of noise. Keep your mike muted except when you actually wish to speak. You should use 'vat' to do this, rather than switching your mike on & off, as powering up a mike typically causes a loud and annoying click. * If you have adjusted your microphone volume by hand, remember to set it to the _same_ value when you move over to the "ITH -- Invitation Only" session. * If you are listening to the program on a normal radio, make sure to turn it off before you speak up to ask questions, to avoid any echo or feedback problems. If you have any questions about the above, send a note to Ron Frederick ... -- Ron Frederick and Steve Deering, your Internet gateway hosts