Re: W3C User Agent Teleconference 4 October 2001

Jim Ley wrote:
> 
[snip]
> Why is there no archiving of the teleconferences, or live streamed audio
> from them? 

We've never tried. I think there might be some technical issues
(e.g., size of data to store, format of data would probably be
proprietary,
etc.).

> The telephone is invasive, you have to give it its full
> attention, and have to really be available for the entire discussion,
> whilst having the discussion streamed live, gives little opportunity for
> immediate response, it does mean people who aren't able to attend through
> other commitments to at least to be able to monitor and either add their
> views to the list afterwards, or just pick up the phone and join
> directly.

I'm not sure that we want that type of teleconference. An effective
Working Group is composed of people who attend regularly, do the
homework, and are prepared for discussion (or just to listen, but
attentively).

If people are not interested in participating regularly, then we
invite them to subscribe to the mailing list. 

Whether the meeting minutes are text or archived audio, people are
always invited to comment on the minutes after the meeting.

> The Minutes are also very "dry", and you don't really get a full
> appreciation of the discussion, being able to listen to how the
> discussion actually went can I imagine save a lot of confusion for people
> who didn't attend.

I agree that one can learn a lot by listening to the audio. The minutes
are not supposed to capture everything, just the essentials and the
decisions of the group. I would not want to have to listen to 2 hours
of audio in order to find out what the group decided on a particular
issue;
I prefer having the short text minutes, that (as a sighted reader) I can
skim.

I think that recording the meeting is an interesting idea, and offers
some advantages, but I don't see it as a replacement for text minutes. 

I will enquire as to the technical feasibility of doing an audio feed.

Meanwhile, one mechanism that we use regularly within W3C but not with
the UAWG is IRC. We have not had requests to have live text minuting
of the discussion. Since I am the (dry <grin>) minute-taker, I am
willing
to take minutes directly on IRC, but so far there has been no demand.
Would this be useful to you? Or are you mostly interested in the
audio feed?

Thanks for the comments,

 - Ian

-- 
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447

Received on Wednesday, 3 October 2001 13:46:37 UTC