Re: Teleconferences

Nadeem,

This is an important observation.   It is possible that this is another good
example of a mismatch between cultural context and ICT application.   The
context for many 'developing countries' is
1) limited communications budgets
2) English is often a second, third or even fourth language
3) Often there is a strong tradition of personal face-to-face
communication.  Conference calls are not necessarily a part of that
tradition.

Stephane, I do not mean this be critical..but when one enters the W3C page
to sign up to learn about becoming an official member, it states that it is
required to participate regularly and accept the cost of participating in an
international conference call conducted in English.  Also it is necessary to
read through and agree to several statements written in rather complicated
legal language that can be difficult even for a native English speaker.

I can only guess, but these may be potential unintended barriers to
participation.  It would be useful to hear from those who are from
'developing counties'.   I may be making incorrect assumptions as to the
importance of cost, language and tradition as barriers to "official
membership".

We came across the same challenge of lack of participation when we attempted
to encourage regular 'conference calls' among African university colleagues
discussing opportunties to utilize ICT for higher education collaboration.
In that case, there was better participation when we changed meetings to
use Internet chat rather than voice conference.

Ciao,

Bill



On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 12:35 AM, Nadeem Akhtar <nadeem@cewit.org.in> wrote:

>
> Stephane,
>
>  It's ironic that the list of official participants in MW4D group has
> hardly
> anyone from 'developing' countries! Maybe the call for participants needs
> to
> be circulated wider.
>
> Regards,
> Nadeem
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: public-mw4d-request@w3.org [mailto:public-mw4d-request@w3.org] On
> Behalf Of Stephane Boyera
> Sent: 25 June 2008 19:34
> To: Janusz Lukasiak; public-mw4d@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Teleconferences
>
>
> Hi Janusz
> [copying the list]
> good spot ! a bad cut and paste:
> the right link is
> http://www.w3.org/2000/09/dbwg/details?group=42462&public=1
>
> Cheers
> Stephane
>
> Janusz Lukasiak a écrit :
> > On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:18:59 +0200, Stephane Boyera wrote
> >> Dear All,
> >> this mail concern the official participants in the MW4D group (see
> >> members detail at [1]).
> >>
> >> [...]
> >>
> >> [1] http://www.w3.org/2000/09/dbwg/details?group=42462&public=1
> > This document is password-protected.  Should it be ?
> >
> > Regards
> > Janusz
>
> --
> Stephane Boyera         stephane@w3.org
> W3C                             +33 (0) 4 92 38 78 34
> BP 93                           fax: +33 (0) 4 92 38 78 22
> F-06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex,
> France
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG.
> Version: 8.0.101 / Virus Database: 270.4.1/1517 - Release Date: 6/24/2008
> 8:41 PM
>
>
>
>