there's no substitute for F2F meetings in order to accomplish some tasks.
I agree, but I would like to know which of the IESG tasks most require
face-to-face meetings. If they were listed, maybe some solutions would
be engineered so that more could be done between meetings.
I already answered this. The IESG of managing and assisting Working Groups
is one of the most important tasks IESG members perform, and it cannot
be done effectively from a remote location.
Even if you provided extremely high quality multimedia facilities that could
accomodate not only all the sessions but also the IESG/IAB breakfasts and
various other scheduled events during the meeting it would not help the IESG
significantly, since additional ad-hoc discussions routinely take place outside
the meeting rooms. Ever hear the term "bar-BOF"?
There are plenty of reasons to keep trying: Fuel costs are going up;
advances in effective telecommuting technologies would benefit most
people; some disabled people can not attend in person; it would reduce
pollution*; network companies would sell more goods and services, etc.
I'm sorry, but I disagree. It is only reasonable to try when there is some
chance of success. And IMO the chance of success here is zero. You're
tilting at a very big windmill.
I do note that it is already possible to participate quite effectively in the
IETF without ever attending a F2F meeting. And the IETF is one of the few
standards bodies where this is true. It is only the upper-level management for
which attendance is a requirement. (And since I'm on the IESG and really hate
to travel, I wish this weren't so. But the reality is what it is.)
* The extent to which this is important is illustrated by the fact that
the curve of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 500+
years fits closely to the equation:
fraction of unit volume = 0.000276 + 0.0081/(1 + exp(-(year - 2254)/56.8)
which explains about 99% of the variation of observed values. That
predicts that the amount of CO2 will double pre-1700 levels in 2060, and
be ten times pre-1700 levels around the year 2300. CO2 is the largest
source of atmospheric energy "forcing", which causes global warming. The
greatest sources of such gases will probably continue to be fuel burned
for transportation, until about 1/3 of all vehicles become zero-emission.
And to what extent will the costs of some 15 people travelling to
three different locations a year change this?
Ned