Background and Charter

The primary purpose of the RTC-AG is to develop, monitor and evolve an Internet2 Real Time Communications (RTC) strategic agenda. The RTC strategic agenda shall encompass principles, architecture(s), roadmaps for development, guidance to Internet2 members on selecting and deploying tools for real time collaboration. The RTC-AG shall also provide guidance to the ASC and Internet2 on existing and needed working groups and activities in the RTC arena.

Charge from the Internet2 Applications Strategy Council

The Internet2 Real Time Communications Advisory Group (RTC-AG) is convened under the auspices of the Applications Strategy Council. Real Time Communications (RTC) is defined here to mean real time communications among individuals and groups for the purpose of collaboration. The scope of the RTC-AG therefore includes all modes of communication, including audio, instant messaging, video, application/screen/data sharing and combinations of these modes.

The primary purpose of the RTC-AG is to develop, monitor and evolve an Internet2 Real Time Communications (RTC) strategic agenda. The RTC strategic agenda shall encompass principles, architecture(s), roadmaps for development, guidance to Internet2 members on selecting and deploying tools for real time collaboration. The RTC-AG shall also provide guidance to the ASC and Internet2 on existing and needed working groups and activities in the RTC arena.

The RTC-AG is intended to address that critical subset of Internet2 applications that enable human-to-human real time communication and collaboration. These applications are general-purpose, meeting the one-to-one and multi-party interpersonal communications needs of people and groups, whether faculty or student, musician or physicist. Internet2 currently has more than half a dozen activities in this space spread across various working groups and areas. Activities include the projects of the Integrated Infrastructure for Instant Messaging, Presence and Integrated Communications, Video Middleware for Videoconferencing, and Voice over IP working groups as well as the Internet2 Commons and some projects of the Research Channel, BigVideo and Digital Video working groups. The RTC area presents an enormous opportunity for the Internet2 community. It also poses a distinct set of architectural, developmental and performance requirements, as well as distinct deployment challenges. The creation of the RTC-AG is Internet2's attempt to focus and to coordinate our activities in this area together with our colleagues in other communities.

The charge of the RTC-AG will be to produce:

1. a technology/application architecture with a roadmap of what is available today and what is visible on the horizon, including identification of key standards that are necessary for interoperability of real time communications applications;
2. recommendations for production, Internet2-wide and beyond, implementations of RTC tools and applications that integrate with work on middleware and include end-to-end diagnostics and support mechanisms;
3. a guide to RTC applications that will help members understand which of the applications or approaches may best fit their needs and information on how to best deploy them for different purposes in our community;
4. a recommendation on how best to align the production service, research and development activities now going on within Internet2. The result should be an alignment of working groups and a set of prioritized activities;

The RTC-AG members will be appointed by the Chair of the ASC. RTC-AG members should broadly represent and provide 2-way communication channels among the very wide range of constituency groups affected by this work including the existing working groups and activities of Internet2 and its partners. The RTC-AG consultation processes should extend to ensure communication with and input from groups that may not be directly represented through RTC-AG members. The initial RTC-AG charge and membership will be reviewed by the ASC in the context of an RTC-AG progress report one year after formation, and annually thereafter. At least one member of the ASC will serve on the RTC-AG. The chair of the group will be appointed by the chair of the ASC and the group will be supported by Internet2 staff.