webcams in SNF cleanroom for educations activities

SNF Labmembers,

You may have noticed that we have recently placed some webcameras inside
the cleanroom. There are 9 of them, mostly aimed down hallways. The
primary use of these will be for education activities as outlined below.
As education director of SNF, along with Maurice Stevens and Uli
Thumser, I have developed remote access activities using webcameras in
the past, mostly utilizing a single, Sony network camera, to transmit
video images into classrooms from the cleanroom as part of NNIN/NSF
education programs. I've also worked with Georgia Tech, another NNIN
member, who has 14 webcams in their cleanroom
(http://grover.mirc.gatech.edu/cameras/) which we have also utilized
jointly for similar education activities, and which has been very
successful. We now have decided to do similar education activities with
fixed webcams in SNF. A common scenario is to give guided tours through
the cleanroom, with Maurice or Uli for example going from room to room
while talking by telephone to students in their classrooms while they
watch and interact with Maurice through the image on a browser. We also
will use them in conjunction with the Sony cam to do AFM and SEM demos,
as well as other processing equipment. We also can use this to give lab
tours to students in the Linvill conference room (101) rather than
gown-up tours, which are very disruptive and difficult, or window tours,
in which the students can not see much anyway.

The webcam images are password protected, and would not be available to
anyone except the students watching the remote activities on that day,
and associated staff members such as myself.

In certain situations, the webcams may also provide a benefit from a
safety perspective. If alarms go off or we experience an earthquake, for
example, senior staff would be able to do a quick check of cleanroom,
even from home if necessary, in order to gain more information on what
is occurring. Again, the images would not be available to anyone except
a few SNF staff members through the password-protected interfaces.

We will not be recording the images, except perhaps during education
activities and only for those education purposes. We will not be using
the webcams for surveillance, etc.

We ask that you do not move our webcams. And do not think that you are
being watched all the time - we will only be looking at the images
during education activities, or for testing, or during safety-related
situations.

So in summary:
- 9 webcams are now in the cleanroom
- They will be used for education and safety-related situations only.
- The images are password protected and will only be viewed during
education activities, testing for those activities, and during
safety-related situations, such as when alarms go off.
- Please do not touch or move the webcams, or change their viewing
direction.

- If you have any questions, contact me, Mike Deal, SNF Education
Director, 5-3607, mdeal@stanford.edu.
-Thanks -Mike Deal, SNF