Thread Links Date Links
Thread Prev Thread Next Thread Index Date Prev Date Next Date Index

[802SEC] FW: [802SEC] Electronic Participation in Interim Meetings



Forwarded on behalf of Phil Barber...

 

Matthew Sherman, Ph.D. 
Engineering Fellow 
BAE Systems -  Network Systems (NS) 
Office: +1 973.633.6344 
Cell: +1 973.229.9520 
email: matthew.sherman@baesystems.com

________________________________

From: Phillip Barber [mailto:pbarber@huawei.com] 
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 2:55 PM
To: Sherman, Matthew J. (US SSA)
Cc: 'Roger Marks'; Bob Heile; 'Paul Nikolich'; 'Rigsbee, Everett O'
Subject: RE: [802SEC] Electronic Participation in Interim Meetings

 

Matt,

 

I assume that these individuals that are attending the meeting remotely
by teleconference will not be given Participation credit, though they
are attending the meeting. The 802 P&P, Section 7.2.3.1 specifies
'Participation is defined as at least 75% presence [emphasis added] at a
meeting.' I would argue that remote participation by teleconference does
not constitute 'presence' as we have traditionally construed the
meaning: physical presence in the meeting room at the specific meeting
interval, for a substantial portion of the meeting interval duration.

 

As Buzz indicated, any precedent decision to allow Participation credit
to attendees by teleconference would undoubtedly subvert motivation for
Members to continue the economic and physical hardships associated with
the travel and attendance of our bi-monthly face-to-face meetings. I
think you should very well expect a massed exodus from face-to-face
attendance should such Participation credit ruling be made/established,
especially during these challenging economic times. 

 

I personally do have concerns similar to those expressed by Bob Heile.
Erosion of the face-to-face meeting format would have extreme, negative
consequences to our standards development activity.

 

Even minor defection would be disastrous. Just 15%- to 25%-attendance
transition to remote participation would cause disruption; reliance on
less-rich communication media even for a few causes delays for all
participants.

 

While teleconferences provide a richer, more timely communications
medium than email exchanges or listserver participation, audio
teleconferences are still vastly inferior to video conferencing, or more
importantly to the most rich communications media we as humans can
enjoy: face-to-face communications. In my experience, the best
teleconference is fractionally efficient to a well run face-to-face
meeting, especially when many participants are involved.

 

Our work is too important, too time-sensitive for us to allow the
devolution of our participation method. We absolutely require the
bandwidth of face-to-face meetings to make rapid progress in our
standards development efforts. Our need for this face-to-face
communication causes some hardships, hardships we have accepted as the
necessary cost for our efforts.

 

In my view it is a simple equation:

*         conduct face-to-face meetings and develop better standards,
bringing new interoperable technologies to market faster, creating and
advancing multi-Billion dollar industries that benefit all;

*         or do work more casually, using email and teleconference as
our primary communications vehicles, which results in poorer standards
developed over longer cycles, reducing both the size and value of the
industries they foster

 

In our efforts to accommodate the needs of a few we should not undermine
the value and effectiveness of our overall efforts. 

 

Thanks,

Phillip Barber

Chief Scientist

Wireless Advanced Research and Standards

Huawei Technologies Co., LTD.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-stds-802-sec@ieee.org [mailto:owner-stds-802-sec@ieee.org]
On Behalf Of Sherman, Matthew J. (US SSA)
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 12:17 PM
To: Bob Heile; STDS-802-SEC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG
Subject: Re: [802SEC] Electronic Participation in Interim Meetings

 

Hi Bob,

 

 

 

Feel free to call me if you want to discuss it in person, otherwise I'm

happy to conduct a dialogue on the reflector.  It is a complex topic,

and would require a long exchange of e-mail I suspect to reach a meeting

of the minds.

 

 

 

Mat

 

 

 

Matthew Sherman, Ph.D. 

Engineering Fellow 

BAE Systems -  Network Systems (NS) 

Office: +1 973.633.6344 

Cell: +1 973.229.9520 

email: matthew.sherman@baesystems.com

 

________________________________

 

From: Bob Heile [mailto:bheile@ieee.org] 

Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 1:07 PM

To: Sherman, Matthew J. (US SSA); STDS-802-SEC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG

Subject: Re: [802SEC] Electronic Participation in Interim Meetings

 

 

 

Mat

 

I am strongly against this.  Face to face meetings are the most

conducive to an effective exchange and debate of ideas. Frequent

telecons between meetings lets everyone participate but the meeting

itself should not be compromised.  Beyond that it sets a dangerous

precedent for extending that to Task and Working group meetings.  

 

Bob

 

 

At 12:54 PM 1/10/2009 -0500, Sherman, Matthew J. (US SSA) wrote:

 

 

 

 

EC Members,

 

 

 

I have received requests from TV Whitespace ECSG members to allow

electronic participation (teleconference / Webex) for the ECSG meetings

at the upcoming Wireless Interim in LA.  I have discussed this with the

IEEE 802.11 Chair (Bruce) who has no objection, and made sure that

appropriate facilities are available.  I checked with the IEEE 802 chair

(Paul) who said he would permit electronic participation for the ECSG at

the interim if it was conducted as an 'Experiment' (with hypothesis and

metrics) to see if it adds clear value to the standards process.

Accordingly we have formulated a hypothesis and metrics and plan to

conduct three two hour meetings at the wireless interim that include

electronic participation, and will conduct straw polls at the end of the

session to see if the metrics support our hypothesis.   We will make the

results of this experiment available to the EC at the March session,

along with other planned outputs from the ECSG.

 

 

 

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact me.

 

 

 

Best Regards,

 

Matthew Sherman 

Chair, IEEE802 Whitespace ECSG 

BAE Systems -  Network Systems (NS) 

Office: +1 973.633.6344 

Cell: +1 973.229.9520 

email:  matthew.sherman@baesystems.com

<mailto:matthew.sherman@baesystems.com>  

 

 

 

 

----------

This email is sent from the 802 Executive Committee email reflector.

This list is maintained by Listserv.

 

 

-- 

No virus found in this incoming message.

Checked by AVG. 

Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.2/1874 - Release Date:

1/4/2009 4:32 PM

 

 

 

 

-- 

No virus found in this incoming message.

Checked by AVG. 

Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.2/1874 - Release Date:

1/4/2009 4:32 PM

 

 

 

Bob Heile, Ph.D

Chairman, ZigBee Alliance

Chair, IEEE 802.15 Working Group on Wireless Personal Area Networks

11 Robert Toner Blvd

Suite 5-301

North Attleboro, MA  02763   USA

Mobile: +1-781-929-4832

email:   bheile@ieee.org

 

 

----------

This email is sent from the 802 Executive Committee email reflector.
This list is maintained by Listserv.


----------
This email is sent from the 802 Executive Committee email reflector.  This list is maintained by Listserv.