Area 1.0

Hi Christoph,

Well, the first step of our activities at “The Society”, is for sure to learn a little bit about IEEE DIS.

• DIS comes with the use of IP multicast addresses. It is a very simple form of networking.
• Nevertheless, DIS is an international standard, as X3D is an international standard (ISO).
• So DIS and X3D fit very well together. However, DIS is rather old, maybe already outdated. I heard, it is still widely used for military applications.

Second step will be / could be, to combine DIS with SIP. This week, I had some reading of RFC 3261. It seems, the use of multicast addresses could be the origin of SIP – I will describe this theory in a little paper soon.

So we should implement a very simple SIP client that interfaces with FreeWrl – better: can we use some existing SIP client? The goal of “The Society” is not to implement anything, but to test 3rd party software. Only, if we need something very special to test something else, then we will implement something.

• First step: no REGISTER, only INVITE, no SIP server at all, INVITE is directly sent from SIP client to mcast address 239.255.x.x (this mcast address must be input by the user) and all clients answer with 200 OK. ACK is sent to each client via unicast address from Contact header field. No provisional responses. Only 200 OK as possible answer (or no answer at all). ACK. BYE. Contact header field holds name of the user plus the unicast address of the client. Question: how to describe DIS session in SDP?
• Second step: simple kamailio server (new element) listens to mcast address 224.0.1.75 “all SIP servers”. Answers with 302 Redirect (redirects to 239.255.x.x multicast address). Client calls a “room name” with Request-URI = sip:room-name@224.0.1.75; mapping from room name to mcast address 239.255.x.x is configured at the kamailio server.
• Third step: some kind of “admin” must authenticate at kamailio an can then register a 239.255.x.x address for the name of a “chat room” dynamically (mapping need not be configured at the kamailio server). Client sends INVITE to sip:room-name@224.0.1.75

The “far-end” goal is an interworking between DIS and the BS Contact Network Sensor (which is a more recent networking technology), or even between DIS and a “HTML based” (WebGL) experimental network sensor (WebRTC based).

Sounds like a complete plan for my retirement, even for the rest of my life

Have a nice week

CP/V

Dear Friends of Realtime 3D,

I told you about the “Society for Computer Aided Collaboration”, which we founded last July.

And I have told you about our first serious project, where we try to learn more about the IEEE DIS standard (https://lc-soc-lc.or.at/project-003-dexper).

But, what exactly have we done during the Holiday’s season 2023?

DISSED

Well, we are trying to understand and test a concrete proposal, which was done by Doug S., last June via the x3d-public mailing list.

Doug suggested to transmit sensor events via the DIS Comment PDUs (I would call this the “DIS Sensor Event Distribution” DISSED).

This proposal can be looked after at the archives of x3d-public: http://web3d.org/pipermail/x3d-public_web3d.org/2023-June/018878.html (and then follow the thread up to my latest e-mail from Fri Dec 29 07:48:12 PST 2023).

However, we have still to answer some questions.

Over holiday’s season, we felt free to perform a few tests and document the open questions and some answers (Q&A): https://lc-soc-lc.at/blackboard/member-space/yeti/private/freewrl-initialtests.htm (doug/freewrl).

Have a nice week,

Yours CP/V

Dear Friends of Realtime 3D,

I told you about the association “Society for Lifelong Collaborating”, which we founded last July.

Now, when the infrastructure is (almost) setup, it is the time to actually start our first project.

We do now some experiments to learn more about the IEEE standard DIS.

Please refer to our project page https://lc-soc-lc.or.at/project-003-dexper

Have a nice Christmas,

Your Christoph

Dear Friends of Realtime 3D Graphics,

Well, last time (see HERE) I told you that we have decided at our general assembly that we would like to test X3D Multiuser Scenes.

Note: “We” means the “Society for Lifelong Collaborating” (https://lc-soc-lc.or.at)

But this can mean many possible directions, we could go.

1. We could try X3D + DIS (probably with FreeWRL)

This would mean for me to step back to the status of a bloody newbie, cause I haven’t done anything with DIS (or even HLA/DIS) since I started with my X3D hobbies.

Furthermore, the DIS is an IEEE standard, where those standards are not generally available and might be hard to get.

2. We could continue from the end of SrrTrains v0.01

This would be a real LHF for me, for I know everything about SrrTrains v0.01.

However, the BS Contact X3D Player is not for free and would mean some need for money, at our association.

3. WebGL based X3D + Network Sensor Node (NSN)

This would be new technologies for me (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ……), but probably this approach could promise to create future proof activity for our association.

4. Next Step

We will have our first monthly “Chat Hour” next Thursday, where we will discuss this.

If you are interested to join us, please send an e-mail to christoph[dot]valentin[at]gmx[dot]at.

Have a nice week

Yours Christoph

Dear friends of realtime 3D graphics,

Well, are there any news that I could share with you?

In my latest posting, I told you that our association would have its very first General Assembly soon:

see https://areasharpa.blog/2023/11/01/the-society-agenda-ga-2023/

So, this General Assembly actually happened last Thursday, but which decisions were actually taken?

I cannot promise much, because we are currently only three members, all of which don’t have got much spare time for this association.

Markus has got no spare time at all, but he believes that the idea of “The Society” is a good idea, and he helped me with founding this association. So we granted him the status of a honorary member. He will always be a good source of advice for us.

Wolfgang, our new member, is an experienced tester. He will be able to test the software that we want to test, within his spare time. His spare time is a scarce resource, too.

I myself am more or less in charge for “everything else” (marketing, infra structure, software that has to be developed by us, …….). I am the reason, why “The Society” acts as slowly as it acts 🙂

BUT

We are now on the same page, about our decision to test X3D Multiuser Scenes and to collect knowledge about them.

This is the major achievement of the General Assembly 2023.

Hope, this blog post was not boring, and

Have a nice week

Yours Christoph

In two days, on Thursday November 2nd, at 6pm CET (GMT +1), we will have our

Annual General Assembly, a Virtual Voice Chat via TeamSpeak3 Server

If you consider to join the voice chat (we will be 3+ people), please contact me at christoph[dot]valentin[at]gmx[dot]at.

In the following the preliminary agenda of the meeting…………

1. Short Introduction of “The Society” – Christoph (English)

Purpose of “The Society” – kind of scientific society, I will explain why

Different types of members according to the statutes
There are full/delegated members, extraordinary members and honorary members

Member fee (due each 1st of December for the following calendar year)
Full Members: 20,- per anno
Extraordinary Members (may “delegate” 5 members for free): 100,- per anno

exit procedure – indication latest by 30th of November, actual exit per 31. December

Statutes at the Imprint: https://lc-soc-lc.or.at/addendum.htm —> Rules (bottom of the page)

2. Stuff of The Board (German)

We will not elect the board this time, we will do this in spring (I will explain it verbally)

As long as there is no board, the duties and rights of the board will be executed by the
founders (Markus and me)

Approval of new member(s)
◦ Wolfgang wants to help us; I will briefly explain the rights and duties of a member
◦ Wolfgang has been / has not been accepted as member

3. The Actual General Assembly (English)

Approval of one honorary member – I am proposing Markus as an “Ehrenmitglied”
Voting: result: …………………..

Discussion of and decision about the future (horizon 2024)

◦ short explanation of our infrastructure
°°°vServer (~ 70 Euro per anno)
°°°OpenVPN -> cannot yet be installed at Macintosh computer
°°°TeamSpeak3 Server -> it’s not perfect, but it was easy to achieve (missing store & fwd.)

◦ what’s our inclination towards Web3D?
Will we continue with testing of X3D scenes?
Voting: result: …………………..

◦ how important is TeamSpeak3 for us?
Discussion: Notes:

◦ What else could we look for?
Discussion: Notes:

◦ Will we do remote “chat hours”, every first Thursday in month, at 6 pm?
Voting: result: …………………..

Yours,

Christoph

The latest posting on this blog (“The Society” has emerged) told you, that we – Markus and me – had founded the “Gesellschaft für rechnergestützte Zusammenarbeit” in Austria (which means “Society for Computer Aided Collaboration”)

To keep it short, we call it just “The Society”.

But what is the purpose of “The Society”?

On the one hand, we can read in the rules of the society, that the society “extends its activities to the creation, testing and dissemination of fact-based knowledge about collaboration tools through passive and mediation of active advice as well as the necessary preparatory work”.

So our main focus will be the testing of collaboration tools and the provisioning of something like a WIKI or at least something like a “Public Blackboard”, with the aim to help other people using those collaboration tools.

On the other hand, the rules of the society do not make any statement about which concrete collaboration tools shall be actually tested. This decision is left to the General Assembly, which will gather every year during October.

So, at the moment we, Markus and me, assume that the first General Assembly will confirm our decision:

Therefore, I am currently trying to define the third project of “The Society”: DIS Experiments (Project)

You might remember:

• The first project was the founding of the society (successfully closed): Founding (Project)
• The second project has not yet been finished, but it is on a good way: Setup of the VPN (Project)

Stay tuned for more information

And have a nice week

Yours Christoph

First:

I told you in one of my latest posts, that we had announced the establishment of the association “Gesellschaft für rechnergestützte Zusammenarbeit” (Society for Computer Aided Collaboration) to the district authority.

Now, they have checked the rules that we had agreed upon, and they invited us to commence the activities.

So, “The Society” has emerged officially as a person of law and it has been registered at the central registry of associations in Austria (ZVR).

Please find the details on the web site of “The Society”: https://lc-soc-lc.or.at/project-001-founding

Second:

In the last few days, I had some very fruitful discussions with John, so the third project of “The Society” is on a good way to be defined and started (https://lc-soc-lc.or.at/project-003-dexper). This means, we will soon start to care for our current focus, the SIP protocol.

However, our resources are scarce and I am currently striving for the establishment of the technical infrastructure of “The Society”: https://lc-soc-lc.or.at/project-002-tvpn

So far, so good

Have a nice week

Yours Christoph

Well, I told you we announced the establishment of the association “Gesellschaft für rechnergestützte Zusammenarbeit” (Society for Computer Aided Collaboration) to the district authority of Neunkirchen.

Then we waited for the answer, which we still do (according to Austrian law, such an announcement must be responded to within 4 weeks).

All these reports at this Blog here, seem to indicate a kind of urgence within all these undertakings and provisions. However, this is not true.

Currently, I am the only person, who is (seems to be) interested in some experiments with FreeWrl and DIS, based on a VPN that shall be provided by the association (once foundation will be finished).

Hence, I am going to take my time, preparing our vServer thoroughly (it has suffered quite a bit of mess during the last experiments, which I/we have done with the help of that server).

Please find the TODO list and the actual status of the project at the link “Setting Up the Tiny VPN Island (TVI)”.

Comments are appreciated

Have a nice week

Yours Christoph

Last Thursday, we (Markus and me) announced the “Gesellschaft für rechnergestützte Zusammenarbeit” at the district authority of Neunkirchen – Lower Austria.

This activity has now officially started the process of emerging.

If the authority accepts the rules that we have attached to our announcement, then “The Society” will emerge as a person of law.

Have a nice week

Yours Christoph

P.S.: more information at https://lc-soc-lc.or.at/project-001-founding