Re: Leading a moving target

[Keith Moore <moore@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 7/27/19 1:37 PM, John C Klensin wrote:

We also need to recognize at
least one downside: I think that someone who signs up to
participate remotely because of one or two WGs is at least a
little less likely to wander into a WG out of curiosity and end
up getting interested and participating activity than if the
same person were wandering the halls of a f2f meeting with
nothing better to do.

It's actually possible that it works, to some degree, the other way:

Last week while I was attending remotely, it seemed easier to peek in on multiple WG sessions and get a sense of the room, than it has been at past meetings when I was physically present.   For instance: 

• Clicking on a link in the agenda is easier than finding where a particular group is meeting and walking there (and disturbing those present when entering and/or exiting a physical room);
  
• Watching the meeting remotely is considerably less frustrating than sitting in a cold room full of air conditioner noise and/or inattentive people (not every meeting, of course, but we've all seen meetings like that);
  
• It's much easier to consult I-Ds and other supporting materials while sitting in one's office (especially if one has multiple monitors) than on a laptop while physically present;
  
• It's easier to queue up for meetecho or type something into a chat window than it is to wriggle through narrow aisles of seats to queue for a physical microphone;
• If there's a need, it's easier to multitask between WG activities and other activities while remote, though I actually found it easier to stay focused on a WG meeting while remote than I typically do in person;
• And of course one can more easily keep an eye on multiple meetings at the same time when remote than when physically present.

At some past IETF meeting at which I was physically present, I realized that I could attend meetings "remotely" (from the hallway or terminal room) more effectively (get more out of the meeting and with less stress), than I could if I were present in the room.   (However I tried to limit this to meetings in which I wouldn't want to say anything.)

One important thing to note about my experience from last week: I live in the same time zone as Montreal.   When a meeting is held at a very different time zone than I live, I find it much more difficult to attend remotely.    I don't deal well with time zone changes anyway, but for me it's easier to do if I physically travel to the different time zone than if I stay at home. 

One of the odd things I found myself thinking in response to the "we gotta stop meeting like this" thread is that, in a way, it makes _more_ sense to physically travel to meetings at distant longitudes, and remotely attend meetings in near longitudes, than vice versa.

Keith