GM calls for plug-in vehicle standards, says Standards Necessary for Consumer Acceptance of Electric Vehicles

April 16, 2009 at 7:55 pm

(Source: Autobloggreen & GM Fast Lane)
One of the factors that has helped to make cars so ubiquitous over the past century is standards. By standardizing things like fuel fillers, inflation nozzles on tires, 12V power sockets and countless other elements, automakers have been able make owning and operating a car much more practical. After all, if you had to drive around to 20 different gas stations to find one with a nozzle that fits your tank, it would be a real nuisance to drive. Most of those industry standards are defined by committees of the Society of Automotive Engineers. One of the standards currently being worked on is SAE J1772 which will define standard connectors for plug-in vehicles.  GM’s Fast Lane blog notes “with SAE J1772™, we’re defining what a common electric vehicle conductive charging system architecture will look like for all major automakers in North America, but more importantly, we’re working to resolve general physical, electrical and performance requirements so these systems can be manufactured for safe public use.

Through SAE, our industry is working together to answer fundamental questions about plug-in electric vehicles such as battery electrochemistry, optimal battery-size and state of charge, and lifecycle among other issues, but zeroing in on the ergonomics, safety and performance of the charging interface is one of the most basic ways we can help build consumer confidence in plug-ins.

Think about it, if you have no reservations or confusion about charging your vehicle, you’re probably going to be more likely to drive one. Drivers shouldn’t have to worry about electromagnetic compatibility, emission and immunity when they need to plug-in – that’s what engineers like me get paid to do.”

Webinar Alert: Performance Measures – A Case Study in Progress Webinar

April 16, 2009 at 1:28 pm

Webinar Overview

Date:   May 6, 2009 Time:  1:00-2:30 P.M. ET Cost:  All T3s are free of charge

Register On-line
Contact the T3 Administrator

Description

The presenters will describe the reason, vision and process for updating their current performance measures report. A primary motivator for embarking on this endeavor is to support the continual process improvement of Traffic Management Centers’ operations. The intent of this T3 is to share the successes and pitfalls in addition to stressing the importance of a holistic approach to measuring performance.

Audience

The audience for this webinar includes transportation professionals who are responsible for developing and using performance measures that support the improvement of Traffic Management Centers.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be exposed to the following:

  • A reusable framework for development of Traffic Management Center performance measures.
  • An understanding of the difference between Outcome and Output performance measures.
  • An appreciation of the value of traceability between desired Outcomes and operations Outputs.
  • An overview of how performance measures can be used to support continual process improvement.
  • Knowledge of some of the challenges and pitfalls to avoid when pursuing development of performance measures on a shoestring budget.

Federal Host:

Lokesh Hebbani, Federal Highway Administration, Georgia Division Office

Lokesh Hebbani currently works as a Traffic Management/ITS/Safety Engineer at FHWA‘s Georgia Division Office. His past experience includes five years as a Traffic Operations/ITS Engineer at the FHWA Florida Division and eight years as a Freeway Operations Engineer at Wisconsin DOT. Lokesh is an active Board member of ITS Georgia and Georgia Traffic Incident Management Enhancement (TIME) Task Force. Lokesh is also the Task Team Leader of Georgia’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). Lokesh holds several degrees: an MBA from Marquette University, an M.S. in Transportation Engineering from the University of Wyoming, and an M.E. in Geotechnical Engineering from Bangalore University, India.

Presenters:

Hugh Colton, Georgia Department of Transportation

Hugh Colton works for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) as the Transportation Management Center’s Operations Manager in Atlanta. Currently, he is working on day-to-day operations and is the project manager for the Georgia Regional ITS Architecture update. Previously, he was the project manager for the Statewide ITS Concept of Operations Plan, the Statewide ITS Strategic Deployment Plan, and established a configuration management system for GDOT‘s ITS. He assisted FHWA in the creation of a Configuration Management training course. Soon after joining GDOT in 1999, he graduated from the University of London with a Masters Degree in Geographic Information Science.

Marcus Wittich, Serco Inc.

Mr. Wittich has over two decades of experience working with leading edge technologies and human resources management in roles such as a Management Consultant, a Project Manager, a Systems Engineer, a Business Analyst, and an Entrepreneur. His work spans a broad range of public and private sector assignments including ATMS work on the Development of NaviGAtor Web, Atlanta’s Metropolitan ITS Integration project (MITSI), Maryland Department of Transportation’s Multi Modal Traveler Information System (MMTIS), the Georgia Traffic Incident Management Enhancement (TIME) Task Force, and the development of the Next Generation of the Georgia ATMS. Prior to his involvement in ATMS development, Mr. Wittich led teams in the development of internet-based applications including the development of Cartoon Network’s cartoon orbit site, Nascar.com, NMFN.com, Burger King’s corporate Internet strategic plans and Hewlett Packard’s hp.com. Mr. Wittich holds a B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.


Reference in this webinar to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by U.S. Department of Transportation

Dummy, yes! Human, almost! – An awesome picture show!

April 15, 2009 at 7:40 pm

(Source: Good Magazine)

Crash test dummies, or anthropomorphic test devices, are replications of human forms and weight distributions, used to study potential human damage in car crashes. We’re all familiar with images of them flying through windshields or being restrained by seat belts and airbags in slow motion. But when looked at through a different lens, the models take on a surreal, human quality. “Crash Tests,” by the French photographer Charles Negre, offers a look at a number of unsung—if inanimate—heroes, without whom we drivers and passengers would be a great deal worse off.  Here is a sample (st one below is the dummy named, David) and click here for the complete picture show.

The one below is Roberto

Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge workshop, May 14th, The Netherlands

April 15, 2009 at 12:21 pm

 

header: Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge
  EJ SolThe paradigm shift goes from a car receiving information only to a car communicating bi-directionally with its environment. The car will become an open system and the car industry will see a change in much the same way that mainframe computer vendors and incumbent telecom operators saw their world change within a decade. We invite all the bright minds to create the best solution and to test them in an open challenge. Who will become the Microsoft of the car operating system? It will take decades, five system generations of evolution, but the automobile will become a real auto (auto) mobile.
Egbert-Jan Sol
CTO, TNO Science and Industry
    

In 2008 we announced the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge and beginning of 2009 we gave you some first information about this event. In the last months we went more in detail and made some changes in the project plan.

This has resulted in a new planning.The challenge begins in 2009, with the finals scheduled for 2011. In brief, the timetable is:

  • 2009: Workshop (May) during the ‘Cooperative Systems on the Road’ event to swap ideas on rules, protocols and technology (more preparation workshops will be scheduled).
  • 2010: Demonstration with Cooperative technology based on Shockwave Traffic Jam Experiment during the showcase event in March involving the CVIS, SAFESPOT and COOPERS R&D projects.
  • 2011: Actual highway challenge. Teams from all around the world will participate.

After 2011, the organisers intend to make the challenge an annual international event in which new and gradually more challenging traffic situations will be addressed to stimulate the development of cooperative technology in the longer term.

The forthcoming workshop date and venue
The first, important event for the GCDC will be a workshop, being organised by HTAS (High Tech Automotive Systems) and TNO on Thursday 14 May 2009. This coincides with the ‘Cooperative Systems on the Road’ event being held on the public roads in the southern Dutch city of Helmond from 12-14 May.

This high-profile event will be attended by international media as well as representatives from government, industry and academic institutions. Topics on the agenda include a GCDC roadmap with redefined activities as well as input for GCDC technology, rules and financing.

Keynote speakers are scheduled from the US DARPA Grand Challenge and ITS Japan.
This workshop is open for interested potential challenge participants and stakeholders.  The outcome of this workshop will enable to start the preparations for the challenge.

Workshop registration
The workshop is free of charge. It will start at 8.30hrs till approximately 18.00hrs. You can register via www.gcdc.nl/workshopmay09 by 24 April. Places are limited so please sign up as soon as possible. This is an initiative you will certainly want to be part of. More details will follow after registration.

Location
Helmond, in the Southeast Netherlands, lies within easy reach of several airports. Eindhoven is just a half hour drive away, with Amsterdam Schiphol very well connected by train. Rotterdam, Düsseldorf, Weeze and Brussels are about an hour away by road.  Hotel accommodation can be found in Helmond itself or in nearby Eindhoven. See links below for more information.

For more information, contact project manager Anton Gerrits (anton.gerrits@tno.nl or +31-623115397).

Useful links

 
 

About HTAS

High Tech Automotive Systems is a Dutch automotive innovation program empowered by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs together with industry, knowledge institutes and university partners.

The focus areas of HTAS are driving Guidance and Efficient Vehicles. In addition HTAS has an ‘Enablers’ program for automotive education, knowledge transfer and business development.
More info: www.htas.nl
 

About TNO 

Developing, integrating and applying knowledge: it is this combination that differentiates TNO from other knowledge institutions. 

By encouraging the effective interplay of knowledge areas, TNO generates creative and practicable innovations: new products, services and processes, fully customized for business and government.
More info: www.tno.nl

 
 
 

An Open Letter to WMATA Chief, Mr. John Catoe – Are you really in touch with your customer? If not, please get in touch with me!

April 10, 2009 at 1:10 am
Dear Mr. Catoe,

Hope all is well at your end. I am not doing so well, as you could see from the below paragraphs, after experiencing yet another bad commute on your trains, prompting me get on the computer and write you a letter at this ungodly hour.  As a resident of the DC metro region, like millions of others, I have been commuting from a Maryland suburb to the District.  Like many of your riders, I take the metro five days a week commuting on the Red Line and Green Line and almost always enjoyed the convenience of the commute.  Except, there are those occasional days when I experience some discomfort, not one of the minor kind.  The kind that makes you wonder how on earth a human being with a wee bit of logic can do such a dumb thing.  The kind that defies logic! Oh, the human beings I am referring to are your train operators, who in my humble opinion are the primary carriers of your service-oriented message – Metro cares!

A Fitting Message Found On Metro!

Unfortunately, this evening was one of those days that I simply came home wondering if you or your staff will ever “get it”.   I mean, get the message that the trains are actually operated for the very people who pay for a service that you offer. Let me walk you through what happened so that you will somehow try and make sense out of why such a thing can happen repeatedly.

After a long stressful day at work, I arrived at the Gallery Place/China Town station hoping to catch the Redline to Shady Grove that (usually) arrives just about 9:23PM.  See, I told you I am a regular commuter, evident from the memorized train timings!  Back to the story again.  When I arrived at the platform towards Shady Grove, I saw a ton of people, most of whom were Hockey fans returning from the Verizon Center after watching the Frozen Four (the NCAA Mens Hockey Tournament Semi-Finals).   As you can imagine, the platforms were pretty crowded and the train was approaching.  Guess what!  Today, your over enthusiastic train operator decided to give a lot of the Washingtonians a free workout on the platform and pulled way past the usual position.   The 6 car train that arrived overshot the target and went past the point from where I normally board ( FYI, I normally board the middle doors on the 2nd last car).   I am sure you can imagine the helter-skelter that ensued when this happens.  The flood of people who were standing in positions where the last car will usually stop all started running with hopes of somehow making the train and getting home in a decent time.

Little do they know that the “wonderfully trained” operator of the train was in a great hurry to close the darn doors of the already crowded train that just arrived.  Before the last passenger disembarked (an older lady) who was supposedly awaiting her turn to step out, your operator thought he waited long enough and proceeded to signal his intentions to close the door with a “Doors Closing” chime! Panic ensues as the people waiting to board rushed in and the poor old lady was trying to get off the train.  Thank god she somehow made it out alive.   But many of us who were waiting on the platform were left wondering what on earth could push a your train conductor to close the doors knowing all well there are a lot of people waiting to board the train. Oh you know what, there was still so much empty space inside the train cars as most of the passengers got off at the station in question.

Now things got a little more interesting.  After the doors chimed and only a four people have gotten in through that last set of doors in that last car.  Mind you that the case was very similar in almost all the cars as far as the eye could see ( I am not too tall to see all the way to the other end of the train).  With only four people inside and at least 60 people waiting outside to get in, the driver decided to show some courtesy and opens the door briefly to allow for a passenger whose bag was stuck half-way through the door as he got on the train.  Let me ask you to guess how “brief” the window of opportunity was for that poor customer of yours to retrieve that bag?  ONE SECOND, I kid you not!

Some of the passengers who got on the train, including a couple of Mr. Hercules types, summoned all the strength in the world to hold the set of doors that had one mission – SHUT/CLOSE! In the fight between man and machine (operated by a mad man who gets paid by these commuters), the men had a brief victory, which allowed a bunch of more people to get on the train.  With swelling crowds on the platform and the next train arrival showing 12 minutes later, you can see the anxiety-laden faces of people go into further panic.  This tug of war between your train operator (who lost his mind when he arrived at Gallery Place) and the brave commuters (who were hell bent on adding a few more people to your train cars to make it worth your while to operate them at a cost/benefit ratio that somehow can justify you next round of federal funding) continued for a few more minutes.   As you see, we are simply trying to help you move more people in the limited amount of time we get to use your trains.

The story was the same when the train arrived at the next stop – Metro Center, which thankfully was not so crowded but the tug of war continued to happen with the bunch that was trying to get in.  I am not sure how many of your customers returned home with bruises & scars that can rival those of a soldier fighting to save this country in a Iraq or Afghanistan.   Unlike them, we are not trained to fight and have no “weapons” to protect from your agressive train operators.  Somehow we all managed to get home without having any major casualties in the war on Metro train this evening.

Well, this is just a sample from a day that is not very unusual.  I have seen this happen many times in the past and I witnessed and participated in this today.   Let me tell you that I do enjoy those days when you get some courteous operators who are patient enough to wait for the customers to board and show up for work with an attitude that says “customer is my god”.  If you really like to hear this, I am a transportation expert myself (hence the name TransportGooru) and I am here to offer you a friendly tip or two — purely from an expert/customer point of view. Let’s now discuss the “potential; solutions to this recurring problem:

1.  Train your operators to understand that they work for people who pay to get around safely, not just swiftly.  Safety is paramount for everyone involved – not just for the Metro operator who stands well shielded in his hardened aluminum cocoon.

2.  Run more trains on days (not all day but at least at for a couple of hours before the games start and after they end) when you know there is a game or a major event at one of our area’s sport arenas/centers.  This should be very easy to do by coordinating with the organizers of such events (Verizon Center, Nationals, etc).  BTW, you guys did an amazing job during the Cherry Blossom Festival.  Kudos!

3.  Deploy your highly trained & poorly paid police officers who always help immensely in dealing with such issues.  I have seen on many occasions people are lot more obedient and well behaved when the officers are on the platform during such “rush” hours after the game.  They also help your train operators to understand that the passengers need time to get on the train.  If this would be a surprise for you, the above mentioned situation never happened in all these years when I took the train when the police officers are standing next to the trains at Galley Place, regulating the flow of passengers into the vehicles.  I think your officers have some “fear” of getting arrested when they see police, because they do their job pretty well without screwing up.

4.  If you think all the above solutions are not good, for Pete’s sake add a couple of cars on trains that arrive that time. Make it an 8 car train so that we have more doors to board and we don’t have to run a marathon on the platform to get close to the train.   I did learn today that you are going to run 8 car trains on Red and Green lines when a bunch of train cars get delivered.  Its about time you did this as you realize we are an active bunch in the DC area and there is always something to do around the town.  We consider you to be the best option to get around from point A to point B, without polluting the environment or making some petro-terrorist nation richer by shelling for gasoline to drive our sexy cars into the City.

5.  If possible, conduct a psychiatric evaluation of your current train operators, all of them, and re-train those who are borderline psychotic/neurotic.   Before they injure someone or mangle some human body part, they be told that it is inappropriate to operate a vehicle in the above described manner.  If it does not change, you may very soon have to print the following message on your Tickets:  WARNING: RIDING METRO IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH.  WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR LOSSES OR BODILY HARM WHILE ON THE METRO SYSTEM BECAUSE WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING IN OUR JOBS.

6. Your hiring and training policies need to be revisited if the situation persists or deteriorate any further (which is highly unlikely as I already saw your staff hit the rock-bottom this evening with such appalling behavior.  It can’t get any worse than what it is now).

7. The final suggestion:  If you can’t fix it, just accept the failure and simply walk away.  Some of your customers have done that – they are resigned to the fate they suffer in the hands of your egregious operators and have decided to move on to alternative modes of transportation (read as personal vehicles a.k.a. cars, mopeds, bicycles) and happily driving around polluting the air that you and your children breathe.   If you want these people to return to your system, you have to correct these above mentioned deficiencies.. Or at least show them that you are making a sincere effort to do that.

If you still think none of the above suggestions are agreeable and you would still like to justify what your operator did is the right thing and there was a very good reason for doing so, please feel free to call me and explain what that reason would be.  Because, I am already close to being “insane” trying to find a logic/reason for how a train/system could be operated in this fashion.  Where I grew up, such a thing would be STOPPED and REEVALUATED COMPLETELY BEFORE IT IS DEEMED SUITABLE FOR SAFE OPERATION.

Before you tout the safety records of your system in yet another forum and plead your case for additional funding, I recommend you to prove to the general public that you and your staff are capable of running a system safely, smoothly and efficiently.  Safety doesn’t always mean prevention of fatalities. It can also be interpreted as prevention of loss (of limbs & other body parts) to your customers. It is a shame that no one has challenged you before and I am glad to do so with this open letter. Or may be it happened and you/your predecessors simply ignored it.

Above all, you have to understand that all your good deeds may simply be ignored when a passenger on your system experiences something so disastrous of this kind.  You and your staff are working hard all year and try to project a positive image to our city’s visitors and residents.  But the actions of a dumb few in your crew negate all the good things you accomplish or try to accomplish within your means.

Alright!  I probably sucked away a good chunk of your time reading this letter (which by now qualifies for the world’s longest complaint letter ever). Now, I’ll allow you to get back to fixing things around the Metro.  In the meanwhile, if any of the above mentioned items or issues are hard to understand or difficult to reason with, please feel free to write to me.  I’ll be glad to spend a couple of my hours to visit you and chat with you (very cordially, as you seen above) over a cup of coffee. Of course, I’ll pay for your coffee too and show our loyalty and generosity towards someone who has a keen interest in our commutes a pleasant one!

Look forward to hear from you soon. Take care, and enjoy a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

TransportGooru@gmail.com

(Signed on behalf of the all the suffering metro riders)

P.S: Apologies for the erratic spelling and any/all grammatical flaws you may have encountered.  It is too late to proof-read but I am sure you are a smart man who is capable of looking past the mistakes and understand the “gist” of the letter, which is:  Your service sucks!  Help us, please!

Trekking the Silk Road, with a green twist – Two BMW riders plan a carbon-neutral motorcycle adventure

April 8, 2009 at 11:27 pm

(Source: Going Global & BMW Motorrad Blog via AutoblogGreen)

Two enterprising Swiss citizens are riding home along the Silk Route from Beijing to Istanbul, to generate awareness of climate change, promote sustainable motor travel and raise funds to benefit SCCF, a new international foundation focused on finding solutions to combat global warming.

Using BMW F 650 GS bikes, Mark Dembitz and Clarisse Von Wunschheim will journey across eight countries in 80 days, covering almost 17,000 kilometres. Their route will see them leave Beijing on 4 May and journey back to Europe via Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, before ending in Istanbul, Turkey on 25 July.

With a career in carbon finance and a keen interest in the environment, Mark is planning to make their ‘Going Global’ journey carbon-neutral, as well as use the opportunity to show others in cities and towns along the route how to help fight climate change.

“We will be keeping an accurate log of daily time and distance travelled as well as fuel usage, and the quantity and quality of petrol,” he said. “Based on this data, we will be able to approximate the quantity of carbon dioxide we emit along the ride. We will then secure credits (one credit is equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide) to offset our carbon emissions.

Along the way, the duo will stop at schools and universities to “teach children and students about global warming, motivating them to join us in being aware of their impact on the environment and in making small changes to their lives that will contribute towards a better and cleaner world for everyone.” 

Mark and Clarisse plan to start their journey on May 4th. Click here for their official website, which they’ll update during their travels.

FAA Scrambles to Add Air Traffic Controllers

April 5, 2009 at 1:03 pm

Mike Zara @ Flickr

 (Source: New York Times)

Like many other air traffic controllers, Michael Pearson was hired by the Federal Aviation Administration in the early 1980s to help replace more than 10,000 striking air traffic controllers who were fired en masse by President Ronald Reagan.

These days he works in the control tower at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. But he may soon become part of an exodus of controllers from the work force, a legacy of those departures nearly three decades ago.

Mr. Pearson, who is also a lawyer and a professor of aviation law at Arizona State University, will turn 50 next year and is considering retiring. Thousands of other controllers are also weighing such a move. Controllers must retire at 56, although they are allowed to retire earlier if they have 25 years of service (or 20 years if they are at least 50).

Because of this retirement bubble, the F.A.A. is in the midst of a hiring surge that began in 2005; its Air Traffic Control Workforce plan has set a goal of hiring 17,000 controllers by 2017.

About 15,000 air traffic controllers are now employed in the United States, including about 6,000 who have been hired since 2005, said Hank Krakowski, chief operating officer for the F.A.A.’s air traffic organization. The agency’s workforce plan calls for 1,900 to be hired this year; 500 are now in training at the F.A.A. Academy.

Another factor driving hiring is a planned modernization of the air traffic control system. When controllers leave their posts to train on new systems, added personnel will be needed to fill their spots.

Training to be an air traffic controller can take years. Applicants must be under 30 and have either a minimum of a high school diploma and three years of full-time work experience or four years of college. (Some combination of the three can be acceptable as well.)

About 70 percent of applicants have come from the military’s air traffic control system or have completed the F.A.A. Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative Program, offered nationwide at 13 colleges and universities.

Click here to read the entire article.

 

Charles Darwin loses (again to a Brit)! Driver Gets charged with careless driving as BMW gets stuck on cliff edge following satellite navigation

March 25, 2009 at 6:56 pm

(Source: Jalopnik); Pictures: The Mirror)

The 43-year old Brit was heading for a friends home near Todmorden, West Yorks when the system took him down a steep and treacherous footpath. His mindless progress stopped as his car hit a fence planted at the edge of a 100 ft cliff which Jones would have probably happily driven off if his navi had told him to. On his He-Man scale feat of stupidity, Robert said, “I just trusted the satnav. It kept insisting that the path was a road even as it was getting narrower and steeper. I rely on my satnav, I couldn’t do without it for my job. I guess I’m lucky the car didn’t slip all the way over the edge. But it has been a bit of a nightmare.”

Locals gathered during the nine hours it took for a crew to pull the car from its predicament, no-doubt snickering at the idiot in the BMW the entire time.

Click here to read the entire Jalopnik article.

Note:  The source article on the British Daily, The Mirror, reports that it is not the first time our British drivers had many such disastrous affairs with Satellite Navigation. It has compiled the Top 10 Sat-Nav disasters on its website and it is worth reading it.

Webinar Alert – A New Approach to Traffic Signal Timing Education and Training: Mobile Signal Timing Training (MOST)

March 18, 2009 at 2:00 pm

 A New Approach to Traffic Signal Timing Education and Training: Mobile Signal Timing Training (MOST) Webinar

When:  April 15, 2009
Time:  1:00-2:30 P.M. ET
Cost:  All T3s are free of charge

For more information and to register:  http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/t3/s090415_most.asp

 Please forward this announcement to colleagues who may be interested in attending this webinar.

 •  T3 Webinars are brought to you by the ITS Professional Capacity Building, a program of the U.S. DOT’s ITS Program.  Visit the ITS PCB website for more information about T3 webinars and other ITS learning opportunities:  http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/default.asp

 •  Visit the T3 archives to view presentations and to listen to audio transcripts from previous T3 webinars:  http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/res_t3_archive.asp

 •  Cut and paste links into your web browser if they fail to open the webpage.

 ——————————————————–

 Important Information for Federal T3 Webinar Participants

 Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) requirements are currently being implemented in federal agencies.  Please contact your IT staff to determine if these requirements affect your ability to connect to T3 webinars via Microsoft Live Meeting from your federal PC or laptop.  This link contains information about Live Meeting and can be provided to your IT staff for further reference:  http://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/t3/info_requirements.asp