RE: HTML WG F2F meeting

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010, Ennals, Robert wrote:
> 
> OTOH I think a face to face meeting can be a great way to get a better 
> understanding of who everyone is, what their world-view is, why they 
> think what they do, etc, which can make it easier to resolve conflicts 
> and make decisions on the mail lists later. I find that a quick 
> one-on-one conversation with someone can tell me much more about what 
> their position really is than a long public email discussion.

I used to agree with this, but in the case of HTML5, conflicts have 
escalated with each working group meeting. This may be a coincidence, but 
it is nonetheless the case that up to the time of our first face-to-face, 
progress was swift and arguments rare, and now after our third 
face-to-face, the working group is virtually deadlocked. So objectively 
speaking, it does not appear to me that face-to-face meetings have in fact 
had the effect that I have long thought they would and that are described 
above. Nor can this be attributed to the objections coming from people who 
didn't attend meetings; many of the most heated arguments of substance are 
between people who have attended all three meetings of this group.

(I've found meeting individuals or small groups unofficially to discuss 
issues to be quite productive, but that's not a formal working group face- 
to-face meeting.)

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Wednesday, 27 January 2010 01:33:49 UTC