Re: Time to encourage interims instead of main meetings?

A healthy working group progresses their work in an efficient and timely
manner, using the right tools for the right job. Clearly we should be using
virtual interim meetings as a part of that toolbox. Not as a replacement for
the e-mail discussion or the physical list, but as a complement to them.
The number of interim meetings has grown significantly in the last couple
of years; the IETF seems to be using them a lot today.

My picture of an ideal working group meeting is that it has detailed draft 
reviews
on mailing list, resolving difficult issues on virtual meetings on a relatively 
frequent
basis, and having bigger discussions on face-to-face meetings. Examples of those
bigger issues include decisions to adopt new work, or resolving issues that
need broader set of participants for the discussion. In the meetings you are 
likely
to get that broader set of people that is needed for these kinds of works.

(You can also contrast this against some common failure modes, like working
groups that do not have enough mailing list or virtual interim work, but still
meet physically, working groups that have unresolved debates on mailing
list but do not organise suitable virtual or real meetings to properly handle
those issues, etc.)

Jari

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