A healthy working group progresses their work in an efficient and timely manner, using the right tools for the right job. Clearly we should be using virtual interim meetings as a part of that toolbox. Not as a replacement for the e-mail discussion or the physical list, but as a complement to them. The number of interim meetings has grown significantly in the last couple of years; the IETF seems to be using them a lot today. My picture of an ideal working group meeting is that it has detailed draft reviews on mailing list, resolving difficult issues on virtual meetings on a relatively frequent basis, and having bigger discussions on face-to-face meetings. Examples of those bigger issues include decisions to adopt new work, or resolving issues that need broader set of participants for the discussion. In the meetings you are likely to get that broader set of people that is needed for these kinds of works. (You can also contrast this against some common failure modes, like working groups that do not have enough mailing list or virtual interim work, but still meet physically, working groups that have unresolved debates on mailing list but do not organise suitable virtual or real meetings to properly handle those issues, etc.) Jari
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail