On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 07:54:25PM -0400, Ted Lemon wrote: > If we were to attempt such a thing, how do you think it would work? Let me preface this by saying that I think attempts to completely mimic the current in-person meeting experience as it exists probably won't work. They might: but they probably won't. But then again, I don't think that's entirely necessary: processes and procedures change (compare boarding a steamship in 1930 with an aircraft in 2005) and evolve in order to work with technology. So if I were to envision this, things I'd want to experiment with would include: - passive view-only, listen-only read-only access to anyone, anonymously. (That is: no registration required.) - levels of read-write access, perhaps (roughly speaking) distinguished as text, audio, and video. Participants could select based on their available bandwidth and on the level they're comfortable with. I think it's reasonable to require registration for write access. - a channel for presentation content only. Again, this is an option for those with limited bandwidth or limited time. - ability to delay/time-shift. - perhaps restructuring long sessions into smaller time slots. If people have all travelled to the same place, then it makes sense to get a lot done in a short time, and so a four hour session (for example) makes sense. But if people are in disparate locations, then maybe four one-hour sessions make more sense. This also better accomodate people who have trouble carving out four hours in the middle of their day. Or night. - integrated storage of sessions, so that someone can watch, listen, read, and absorb the entire experience. Useful for someone half a planet away who won't be (or can't be) awake for real-time participation. - translations and/or text captioning and/or some kind of assistance for non-native speakers and the hearing impaired. - emphasis on the inclusion of participants who can't make it to meetings today, either because of time, money, politics, distance, family, job, etc. Over and above all of this: a willingness to experiment and to have some of those expirements fail -- which they will. ---rsk