meeting time

[Scott W Brim]

On Wed, Dec 11, 2002 01:28:19PM -0800, Dave Crocker allegedly wrote:
> By contrast, remaining focused on the mailing list for major work means that
> things are done more incrementally and the work is spread out over time. The
> meeting time serves two major purposes: 1) milestone pressure, by way of
> getting people to find resolution -- or at least to make progress -- during
> the time leading up to the meeting, and b) face to face time for focused
> discussion about focused issues, i.e., discussing only issues that can be
> discussed efficiently. The barroom meetings also prove to be extremely
> fruitful idea generators.

Face to face time helps to resolve issues that can't be resolved on the
lists -- which are great for raising possibilities but poor for shooting
them down.  I like the idea of improving what we get done when we're not
meeting face to face.  The idea of teleconferencing comes up again.  You
can iterate between e-mail discussion and conferencing to resolve issues
(like diastole and systole).  

Voice is expensive for many, there are language problems, and so far we
don't have good human-layer protocols anyway.  However, I've seen some
good meetings happen in text-based environments with the right tools,
such as widgets for evaluating "hums" and managing speaker queues (not
just Jabber).  I'm intrigued by the idea of setting up such an
environment and trying it out for an interim WG meeting.