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In our new series "Get to Know the Avalon Team," we'll be providing a closer look at the individuals who are working each day to develop the Avalon Media System.

Claire Stewart

Claire Stewart is a project co-director and helps with overall vision and direction for the Avalon project and system. She is the Northwestern University Library's lead on scholarly communication issues, and is responsible for providing leadership in development of repository services and digital publishing and digital archiving projects. 

Can you talk a bit about your role in the project?

I'm on the project director team with Jon Dunn and Stu Baker, and I'm the head of the department at Northwestern that manages the collections digitization & streaming and repository services, so I work with Julie Rudder to keep in synch on Avalon needs and development, and how things are lining up with our other repository development projects. Right now I'm tackling the Avalon licensing issues, which involves getting all the component licenses pulled together and sorted and making sure we have one we like.

What is a typical work week like for you?

I have two jobs, technically: I'm the head of Digital Collections and I direct our Center for Scholarly Communication & Digital Curation. So you know what that means: meetings. I'm lucky, I get to work with a lot of people inside and outside of the library, so there are a lot of meetings, but sometimes it's with librarians, sometimes with faculty or academic administrators, sometimes with technologists. It's a nice mix. In any given week I probably spend ⅓ of my time writing, ⅓ engaged in various project and planning activities or consulting on projects, and ⅓ doing more administrative/managerial things, budgets, department meetings, and so forth. Now that I'm doing the Scholarly Communication thing, I'm also traveling more, which I'm enjoying. 

What apps/software/gadgets can't you live without?

Another sprint closer to R1! This week the team finished adding new functionality to Avalon. Processing feedback has been greatly improved, which will be very helpful in diagnosing problems during file processing. A large number of bugs were identified and fixed across the system. Function freeze will be in effect soon with code freeze planned for the end of the sprint. The team is getting excited about sharing our work with everyone soon!

Click here to watch the full recording of the demo.

• Media Processing Feedback (VoV 1187) - (0:00:00) - Michael

• Optimizing Encoding Profiles (VoV 1189) -- (0:16:06) - Stefan

• Release/Change Control plan (VOV 1201) - (0:25:47) - Michael
• Testing Avalon, Reporting Bugs, Fixing Bugs (VoV 1203) - (0:29:40) - Andrea/Julie/Stefan
• Review of Sprint Stories – Team led by Steve (0:37:45)

You can see the demos for past Sprints here or learn more about our development process here.

In our new series "Get to Know the Avalon Team," we'll be providing a closer look at the individuals who are working each day to develop the Avalon Media System.

Nathan Rogers

Nathan is a Programmer/Analyst for the Avalon Media System at Indiana University. He has a degree in computer science and an MLIS, and has worked in digital libraries for the past ten years. 

Can you talk a bit about your role in the project?

I am one of three developers located at Indiana University. Along with Adam and Michael up at Northwestern, we help to make sure that new features get implemented in a stable, sustainable fashion. Sometimes this can be a challenge, especially when you run into unexpected obstacles, but it does keep you on your toes from day to day.

What is a typical work week like for you?

Usually in the mornings I spend time doing documentation and minor tasks to help clean up from yesterday's work. At some point there is a standup with both local and remote team members. This helps to understand where everybody is at and where I can be most useful. Because we are using an Agile process everything is broken down into stories and tasks. Depending on where I am at I will either keep plugging away on yesterday's problems or pull something new from the board.

Because of the nature of the project there is always something interesting to work on. It might be fixing some front end bugs in the interface, adjusting the metadata, or tuning the back end of the system to help make everything more stable. Last week, for instance, I was able to help make some changes to the player interface. Now it is much more reliable when it loads, unlike the previous version. Things like that are nice to fix because they will make the overall experience much more enjoyable for students. My goal is build a system that people actually want to use instead of grudgingly firing up a browser window because a professor said so.

What apps/software/gadgets can't you live without?

I actually enjoy going without a smartphone or computer from time to time so I tend to not get too attached to anything in particular. However, being an OS X user, there are several utilities that I could not live without because of the time they save. Quicksilver is a little tool for rapidly switching programs, opening web sites, and doing all kinds of small things. BBEdit is a great jack-of-all-trades text editor that I can rely on to help me open files quickly, even large ones. Lastly, there is the notification tool Growl. This is a messaging system that lets applications unobtrusively announce updates. Because it isn't tied to a single application it is much more predictable than having Outlook, an IRC chat, Lync, and everyone else from doing it their own way.

When you’re not working, what can you be found doing?

If I am not at work I enjoy being outside. Some people complain about the snow in Indiana but I actually wish we could get more. Since I can no longer cross country ski I fall back to my four seasons hobby, which is cycling. Chances are that is the weather is halfway decent and there is enough daylight I'll be climbing the hills around Bloomington. People who think that Indiana is flat should come for a weekend visit! I'm also a big fan of college basketball, which I believe is a legal requirement for becoming a resident of Indiana. If there is a big time game from a major conference on television, chances are good that it will be on while I am doing things around the house. A close second is professional cycling although I would much rather be on my own bike instead of watching other people climb the Alps, Pyrenees, or race around California.

Product Owner Julie Rudder (Northwestern University) presented a poster at the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting held in Denver, Colorado, from February 4-6.  You can view the poster here via the Avalon Media System Slideshare account. When Julie returned from Denver, I asked her a few questions about her trip.

Can you talk a bit about the focus of this year's ELI Annual?

It was structured like many other conferences: centered around themes of teaching and learning are keynote speakers, multiple tracks with presentations, poster sessions, interactive sessions. This year's themes included emerging technology, future modeling, and academic transformation; mobile learning; methods for evaluating technology-based instructional innovations; online and blended teaching and learning; e-textbooks; and learning analytics.

Did you leave the conference with any new ideas about Avalon?

There was a lot of interest in Avalon that came from folks who did not work in libraries but in units that dealt with streaming media - lots of folks were interested in clip making and playlists.  People were asking how Avalon was different from other systems out there. Many wanted to know how Avalon would work with other types of systems they already have at their universities, confirming some of our own thoughts about the kind of interoperability the system should have. I also had some conversations about structural metadata - the term was confusing and a little too library for this crowd but the concept made sense and people seemed excited about its function.

What was your favorite part of the trip?

I was able to hear an update on a research project I've been following. The talk was called "Student Use of Digital Resources: Implications for Learning and Technology Support," given by a team of researchers from the University of Central Florida, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This week the team focused on adding the last of bit of new functionality before R1. Avalon will now be able to work with Red5 and Adobe Streaming Servers. More work was completed to make Avalon pleasing to the eye. Next we'll be turning our attention to user testing, preparing for installations at other institutions and smoothing out any bumps the team comes across along the way. Things are really cooking now! 

Click here to watch the full recording of the demo.

• High Quality Look of Avalon UI (VoV 1111) - (0:00:00) - Brendan
• Avalon Red5 System on Mobile (VoV 967) -- (0:05:03) - Michael
• Secured Streaming for iOS devices (VOV 1109) - (0:05:49) - Michael
• Generic Installation for Avalon (VoV 1113) - (0:13:38) - Adam
• NU Installation Documentation (VoV 1118) - (0:16:26) - Michael
• Black Background on Engage Player (VoV 1124) - (0:20:27) - Phuong
• System Testing and Debugging (VoV 1115) - (0:21:18) - Team

You can see the demos for past Sprints here or learn more about our development process here.

In our new series "Get to Know the Avalon Team," we'll be providing a closer look at the individuals who are working each day to develop the Avalon Media System.

Andrea Zielke

Andrea Zielke is one of the Project Assistants for the Avalon Media System. She assists with planning and organization for Avalon in addition to providing support for Northwestern University's Library Technology Division.

Can you talk a bit about your role in the project?

I am a Project Assistant for Avalon so I help with the day to day logistics of setting up meetings, keeping track of upcoming conferences, organizing the team through various method like Basecamp, the wiki, JIRA, listservs, chatrooms and Google docs.  The rest of my day, I assist the Library Technology Division in much the same manner.  Right now I am filling in as Scrum Master so I spend quite a bit of time tracking down folks and asking them what they are working on.

What is a typical work week like for you?

With Agile, you never know what your day or week is going to look like.  Some days will be meetings, meetings and more meetings.  Other days involve user testing of Avalon, working on presentations/proposals or planning the logistics for a face-to-face meeting. Every other Friday is a day I like to affectionately call Demo Day.  Demo day is always the same: a 3.5 hour sprint planning session followed by an editing session to get the demo published for anyone interested in Avalon’s progress. 

What apps/software/gadgets can't you live without? 

With Avalon, I could not do my job without Microsoft Lync.  A quick chat is just less disruptive and usually quicker than waiting for an email response.  Since we are all working in different locations within the same building and at different universities, this makes it seem like we are all on the same team, working at the same time. 

In my daily life, everything is better with a beat so I am always streaming music from any and all Pandora, Spotify or Grooveshark.  I like to document the daily lives of my cats, Ziggy Smalls and Magnus, on Instagram – my followers are few but loyal.  As an avid moviegoer, I try not to remember the time before smartphones when you had to sit through Mr. Moviefone to find out a movie’s time and location.  I love my Flixster app; it has freed me from calling theaters and newspapers!

If not working, I am usually tooling around Chicago trying to find the best eggroll joint around.  As a transplant from Wisconsin, I have stopped comparing Chicago to my home state and instead make frequent trips to the north for beer, cheese, frozen custard and family.  Other than that, I am just an amateur cat photographer that likes to go to movies on a whim! 

Project Director Jon Dunn (Indiana University) and Programmer/Analyst Adam Hallett (Northwestern University) attended the Opencast Unconference held at the University of California-San Diego from January 30-February 1. Opencast is the creator of Matterhorn and one of the Avalon Media System's technology partners. While at the Unconference, Jon and Adam gave a presentation on Avalon (embedded below--for a larger version click here). 

When they returned to the Midwest, I asked Jon a few questions about the Unconference and Opencast Matterhorn. 

How does Avalon use Matterhorn?

Avalon uses Matterhorn in two main ways: Matterhorn’s media processing workflow capabilities are used to transcode master audio and video files into streaming deliverables, and Avalon’s web audio/video player is based on Matterhorn’s Engage player.

What was the goal of the Unconference? 

The goal of the Unconference was to bring together people involved in the development, operation, and use of Opencast Matterhorn to share information about their projects and experiences and to discuss future plans for Matterhorn and the broader Opencast community. In addition, several vendors were present to discuss their Matterhorn-related products and services. A web site was set up through which attendees could propose and vote on presentation ideas, and an initial agenda was constructed based on this voting. However, the schedule was flexible enough to be adjusted “on the fly” during the Unconference, in order to make sure enough time was allotted to important topics.

What sort of feedback did you get about Avalon?

There was a great deal of positive feedback on our presentation and a lot of interest in Avalon, both from potential implementers as well as from Matterhorn developers, who encouraged us to continue to work with the community to enhance Matterhorn to better serve needs beyond lecture capture.

Did you leave with any insights or ideas?

I came away from the Unconference with a new appreciation for the power of the combination of Avalon and Opencast Matterhorn to support a wide range of video content management needs across research, teaching, and learning.

What was your favorite part of the trip?

Beyond the conference presentation and discussions, my favorite part of the trip was just being able to enjoy the UCSD campus and sunny San Diego!

This week the Avalon team focused on cleaning up the system in preparation for our upcoming release (R1). Catalogers will appreciate the included tooltips in the Resource Description Form. We have added a list of media formats (codecs and wrappers) that may be supported by R1. Brendan Quinn from Northwestern's Digital Collections Department has joined the team to help shine up the look and feel of Avalon, so you'll be able to see some of the improvements he made during the demo as well.

Click here to watch the full recording of the demo.

• Media Formats Supported for R1 (VoV 965) - (0:00:00) -Stefan
• Secured streaming for Red5 (Desktop) (VoV 904) - (0:02:48) - Michael
• Avalon Red5 System on Mobile (VoV 967) - (0:05:21) Chris
• NU Test System (VoV 964) - (0:08:04) - Michael
• Shiny Improved Avalon (VoV 1039) - (00:11:31) -Brendan
• Instructions for Descriptive Metadata (VoV 1008) - (00:13:44) - Julie H
• Update on User Testing & Bug Documenting (VoV 1042) - (00:18:49) Team
• Review of Sprint Stories – Team led by Andrea (0:21:02)

You can see the demos for past Sprints here or learn more about our development process here.

The Avalon Media System is looking like a real system this week!  The focus of this sprint was to improve the look and feel of Avalon; to that end, lots of progress was made toward refining the overall user interface. Work on the Item Access and Group Management pages was especially fruitful.

If you want to see some of the changes made to Avalon, please watch the recording of our demo. Comments are always welcome! 

• Improved Look and UX of Avalon (VoV 941 & VoV 1004) - Chris (0:00:00)

  • Dropbox Searching - (0:04:59)

  • Improved Resource Description Page - (0:06:15)

  • Access Control by Item (VoV 586 & VoV 587) -  (0:14:43)

  • Multiple Derivatives for Audio (VoV 966) - (0:21:24)

  • Manage Groups Page Improvements - (0:28:41)

  • Player Improvements - (0:36:56)

• Update on NU Test System (VoV 964) - (0:41:42) - Michael

• Review of Sprint Stories – Team led by Steve (0:39:55)

You can see the demos for past Sprints here or learn more about our development process here.