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MEASUREMENT SCIENCE AND STANDARDS IN FORENSIC 

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS CONFERENCE & WEBCAST

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

 June 4-5, 2013

Overview

We have several important announcements regarding the Measurement Science and Standards in 

Forensic Handwriting Analysis Conference & Webcast that starts at 9:00AM Eastern Time on June 4-5, 

2013, at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland. There is a link to launch the live streaming webcast on the 

conference website: http://www.nist.gov/oles/handwriting.cfm. In addition, all materials needed for 

the webcast are located on the conference website. 

Please bring your smartphones with you to the conference or webcast to answer poll questions or 

submit questions to the presenters using your smartphone web browser. We intend to ask poll 

questions during the webcast to seek feedback from the on-site audience and webcast viewers using 

survey monkey. We would prefer to receive responses from individual viewers rather than a single 

response from each laboratory. Responses to these poll questions will be anonymous and will be 

presented during the webcast in aggregate form only.

Information Technology Requirements & Testing Options

Many of the webcast viewers will be from law enforcement agencies that employ firewalls on their 

network. In order to test to see if your agency is able to view the live webcast we have provided the 

following two options:

1. On Monday, June 3rd from 9:00AM – Noon (Eastern Time) we will be streaming content to the 

media player for agencies to test their systems. Directions: Load the conference website: 

http://www.nist.gov/oles/handwriting.cfm and click “Link to the Conference Webcast”. This 

will load the browser & media player to test your system during that specific time period.

2. We will start the actual live webcast feed at 8:30AM eastern time (30 minutes prior to the 

actual start) on Tuesday, June 4th for agencies to fine tune their ability to view the webcast.

Minimum System Requirements: To review webcast system requirements prior to the event: 

http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/upload/Min-Requirements-for-NIST-Webcasts.pdf

Screen Resolution: Webcast viewers watching the streaming video on a large conference screen may 

notice that the image is somewhat pixilated. This is because of the size of the streaming files that are 

being broadcast. Ideally, webcasts are designed to watch on a typical computer screen however there

may be benefits to watching this webcast in a group setting to discuss the content. 

21 Second Delay: There is a 21 second delay in the webcast feed to your computers from NIST so there 

may be slight delays in addressing questions from the webcast viewers. We encourage webcast viewers 

with questions for specific speakers to email in those questions BEFORE the end of the speaker’s 

presentation so we can properly queue the questions and minimize the impact of the 21 second time 

delay. 
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Materials to Bring to the Webcast or Workshop

Printable Slides: On Monday June 3, 2013 by noon, you will be able to access PDFs of the workshop 

slides from the conference website to print your slides of interest. Please note that not all presenters 

have provided copies of their slides for posting.

Smartphones for Live Poll Questions & Asking Questions: Please bring your smartphones to the 

conference & webcast. For those of you viewing the webcast in a group setting with a single computer 

feed displaying the material in a conference room, please bring your smart phones to the webcast. We 

will have live poll questions through survey monkey and would like to receive feedback from individual 

attendees rather than a single response per laboratory. The responses to these poll questions will be 

anonymous and presented during the webcast in aggregate form only. The poll questions can be 

accessed using a typical smartphone’s (including iPhones) web browser. A link will be provided during 

the conference. 

Other Important Announcements

Registration for Webcast Viewing: Registration to view the webcast is open until COB June 3rd and 

onsite attendance registration is now closed.

Workshop Questions: If you have a question during the webcast, please email forensic@nist.gov to ask 

the question. This email address will be used to compile webcast questions for the presenters to 

address during the live broadcast. 

Twitter Feed: For those individuals that want to participate in the Twitter discussion during the 

webcast, please use the hashtag: #NISTForensics. 

Archiving Webcast: NIST will archive this webcast for future viewing. It will be posted on a public NIST 

website within 1 week of the live webcast and be available for 6 months of freely-available on-demand 

viewing. An announcement will be sent to all registered participants announcing the availability of the 

on-demand material once it is posted on the conference website.

Certificates of Attendance: All on-site attendees and webcast viewers must register to receive 

certificates of attendance for this event. 

Summary of links:

1. Conference website for registration, agenda, slides & WEBCAST LAUNCH: 

http://www.nist.gov/oles/handwriting.cfm

2. Web System Requirements: : http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/upload/Min-Requirements-for-NISTWebcasts.pdf

3. Email address to ask questions: forensic@nist.gov

4. Twitter Feed: #NISTForensics