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Re: [802SEC] Electronic participation in meetings



Bob,

That's a pretty radical suggestion. I'm intrigued by what you have in
mind for membership requirements. Without knowing your thoughts, I have
very strong doubts that you can propose something that manages to
satisfy SA requirements, clear definition, and an improved membership.
But, I'm at least curious as to your ideas, even if I'm correct that you
can't propose something that satisfies those three requirements. And, if
you really do have an idea that satisfies all three of those, then I'm
really interested.

However, without such a radical change in membership requirements, I
believe Geoff's conclusion stands.

jl

On 1/28/2009 1:51 PM, Bob O'Hara wrote:
> Geoff,
>
> I believe, but am not at all certain, that your position might rest on
> the fact that as membership is defined today there is no requirement
> that the member have any particular qualification than to be able to pay
> the meeting fee often enough and to sit in a designated conference room
> long enough to meet our requirements.  In my opinion, this results in an
> average quality of member that is rather lower than many would wish.  It
> could be that you feel that an increase of the number of participants
> through electronic means would further degrade this member quality.  I
> believe you would be correct. If our membership requirements don't
> change.
>
> To open our meetings to electronic participants, I would hope to raise
> the quality of our members, as well.  This would require that 802
> revisit its membership requirements with that in mind.  I believe that
> these two things, when combined, would result in higher quality meetings
> and more rapid standards development.
>
> I would expect that our chairs would continue to exercise their ability
> to run a meeting by limiting discussions of "low quality", just as they
> do now.  I don't see how having more participants will hamper their
> efforts in this regard.  I did grant that the currently available tools
> might not be up to the standards that we would desire.  But, that is not
> a reason to discard the idea of electronic participation out of hand.
>
>  -Bob
>
>
>   
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ***** IEEE 802 Executive Committee List ***** [mailto:STDS-802-
>> SEC@ieee.org] On Behalf Of Geoff Thompson
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 7:02 AM
>> To: STDS-802-SEC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG
>> Subject: Re: [802SEC] Electronic participation in meetings
>>
>> At 08:05 PM 1/27/2009 , Bob O'Hara wrote:
>>
>>   >To separate the general discussion of electronic participation
>>   >from the experiment run in the Whitespace SG, I have created
>>   >this new email thread.  Please move the general discussion here.
>>   >
>>   >I have read the emails from Tony, John, Geoff, and others.
>>   >They all cite valid issues with the tool used and the problems
>>   >it created running an efficient meeting.  I agree that the tool
>>   >has issues and causes inefficiencies in the meeting.
>>   >Tool issues are not a reason to not consider how we can open
>>   >our meetings to more participants, unless we are just against
>>   >that idea on general principles.
>> I very strongly disagree.
>>   >
>>   >I believe that more participation generates better discussions,
>>   >Which then generate better standards.
>> Not necessarily. If more participation requires a lower quality, more
>> cumbersome discussion process for the most interested and most
>>     
> committed
>   
>> parties, then broader participation is not necessarily a win. That is
>>     
> the
>   
>> issue we are discussing here. If we open the process to anyone in the
>>     
> world
>   
>> who is casually interested, perhaps not in a constructive way, then we
>>     
> lose
>   
>> in terms of our goals, which is producing innovative and relevant new
>> standards.
>>   >  If electronic participation
>>   >will allow more people to participate, or even to observe, why
>>     
> shouldn't
>   
>> we enable that?
>> For precisely the reason above.
>> It is a balance.
>> We try to do invention by committee.
>> It is not a given that the larger the committee, the better the
>>     
> output.
>   
>>   >
>>   > -Bob
>>   >
>> Best regards,
>>
>> 	Geoff
>>
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