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.
I'm interested in the specific reasons why this is the case.
There are so many it is difficult to know where to start. Examples include:
Try figuring out the general attitude of a room containing, say, several
hundred people remotely. Can't be done, and this is *vital*.
Try taking someone aside to have a private discussion of a point raised
in the public discussion. Can't be done, and this is also *vital*.
Even simple things like raising a point of order -- something ADs sometimes
have to do -- are hard to do remotely.
You listed one:
additional ad-hoc discussions routinely take place outside
the meeting rooms.
That's a good example of a specific reason that makes non-portable
teleconferencing equipment pointless for such kinds of participation.
Is there any reason not to expect that with advances in lightweight,
portable, wireless teleconferencing terminals, this reason will
eventually decline in importance?
No. Advances in teleconferencing facilities for remote participation in small
groups in fixed facilities still aren't even close to equalling F2F
interactions. (The group I'm in at Sun is split between facilities in West
Covina and Santa Clara, so I spend a lot of time with this sort of technology.)
I see no reason to believe that the myriad problems with the sort of
participation you describe, which are far harder to solve, will be addressed
any better in anything resembling a meaningful time frame.
Incidentally, another problem with IETF meetings is given the size of many of
the sessions the facilities we use currently aren't adequate to accomodate full
remote participation, let alone remote management. Better facilities exist, but
they are *extremely* expensive, and the amount of technical expertise needed to
operate them is high. (I probably should point out that I used to be a sound
designer and technician.)
Here is another reason: there is a tradition at IETF meetings
to conduct informal polls by humming. I know of know
teleconferecing system that allows that kind of quick voting,
but I'm sure they must exist. There are email-based systems
that provide support to parlamentary ("Roberts Rules of Order")
meetings. Perhaps teleconferencing applications will be enhanced
with quick aggregate polling features.
And that would change the character of the process completely. Another
nonstarter.
What other essential activities tend to require attendance in
person?
See above.
It may seem like tilting at windmills, but this topic is a rich
source of hard unsolved engineering problems.
Well, perhaps you have the time to discuss ideas that will never go anywhere at
great length, but I'm afraid I don't. So this will be my last message on this
topic.
Ned