Hi, Marshall,
Speaking as a scribe...
My biggest obstacle to using jabber for scribing is that we still (used to
be frequently, now very rarely, but it happened in Dublin) experience
networking problems on the wireless LAN. The typical Monday morning problems
of long ago kept me from trying it for about two years ("once burned, twice
shy").
If we could run one ethernet cable for the chairs/scribe, I bet we'd have
more volunteers (I remember that offering power for the scribes worked as an
inducement in Yokohama and in Vienna, and probably other places as well).
Beyond that ... so how many working groups have formal secretaries?
Spencer
In many of the working groups that I participate in, I have noticed
that it is increasingly difficult to find scribes (whether old-style or
jabber).
I know that some WG simply give up and have one of the Co-chairs scribe.
I would regard this as extremely suboptimal in the WG where I am a
Co-chair, as my co-chairs and I bring different strengths and abilities
to
the table, and regard this as a bad sign and a clear implications of the
need for some improvements.
Here are some thoughts and suggestions about this situation :
1.) Is it really necessary to have a jabber scribe and a regular scribe
as a separate
position ? We had 117 sessions in Dublin, finding 234 scribes is clearly
harder than finding 117.
I find that scribing on jabber has a number of advantages
- you frequently get corrections if you didn't get a speakers name,
missed
the spelling of an acronym, etc.
- you can frequently get an instant backup if you need a brief bio- break.
- people in the audience can expand on topics, provide background, etc.
- the notes are archived instantly and cannot be lost if the scribe's
computer crashes (as has happened to me).
The only "con" I can think of is that some scribes might use a
stenographic style
that would not lend itself to exposure on jabber. (I would note, though,
that some WGs
are much more jabber involved than others.) If there is sufficient
interest, we could even offer
two jabber sessions per meeting - one for the scribe and comments, one
for general discussion.
2.) Would it be possible to have a volunteer list for scribes in advance
of the meeting ? I would be willing to volunteer to sign-up to scribe one
or two sessions in WG that need a scribe, and suspect others would too.
Surely with doodle and other modern tools, we could offer some sort of
sign-up mechanism. I would even suggest 2 - a list of people willing to
volunteer in general, and a agenda or calendar with slots in each session
for the scribe for that session.
3.) A minor point, but I would urge WG chairs to formally designate
someone (possibly themselves) to
relay questions from jabber. This seems to fall to the jabber scribe,
even though it is impossible to stand at the
mike and scribe at the same time !
Regards
Marshall
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