Re: [dita-help] Re: OASIS WebEx-type account

[Scott McGrath <scott.mcgrath@oasis-open.org>]

Hi Scott,

Allow me to share some insights, ask some questions of you and other SC members and perhaps even move a bit closer to a good answer.

first the questions:

I think I see three separate issues:

1. Screen sharing and meeting facilitation

2. Local/domestic call expenses

3. International call expenses

Of these three, how would you rank them - which would be most productive to resolve?  I know answering this will take some conjecture if you assume "productive" means getting more folks involved in your work or keeping folks involved in your work. Best guesses are good.

How much of an impediment are these issues?  Is resolving any of them imperative to your progress, are they reasonable courtesies to offer, or nice to have?

With your earlier use of Webex, did the integrated audio solve some/all of the phone call issues?

Now, some answers and observations from my experience:

Most TCs have available member provided resources for teleconference, at a minimum, and increasingly screen-sharing.  This comes from member's professional courtesy and generous offer. I've heard some large members express that they are happy to provide the resource, because they do want to support  the work any way they can--and their large scale economies for teleconferencing is a readily available asset.  It is very infrequent that there is not a resource and anyone has to consider pan-handling.  Of course,  that is no consolation to anyone forced to pan-handle ;-) so we do want to prevent that.

I do know that providing services to all members across the board is not feasible. I did a fairly deep analysis of possible costs in 2006, when we had far fewer TCs.  I  considered the cost if we provided international conferencing for all TC meetings that had teleconferences on their calendar.  The cost would have been nearly 10% our annual operating budget.  As a non-profit that shares its costs among all the members, we couldn't rationalize a 10% dues increase to provide a service that was generally being provided already. Honestly, I think many members believe having a few large members carrying the conference costs internally is preferential to sharing it across all members, but that may be a matter of perspective ;-)   

We have experimented in the past, and based on your inquiry will revisit, the idea of having limited resources available to fill in the gaps where donated services are not available.  It's a delicate balance to provide necessary services without blowing out the budget, but it is more feasible than funding services across the board.

your committee's responses to the questions above will help me maximize the value while containing the cost to something reasonable (hopefully ;-))

Thanks for asking, thanks for reading this and for your reply,

All the best,

Scott...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Scott Prentice <sp10@leximation.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 12:39 PM
Subject: Re: [dita-help] Re: OASIS WebEx-type account
To: Chet Ensign <chet.ensign@oasis-open.org>
Cc: dita-help@lists.oasis-open.org

Hi Chet...

I've also used multiple combinations of "free" services to organize meetings like this, but you often end up spending the first 15 minutes getting everything  set up and working properly. Once everyone has figured it out it goes a bit smoother, but any time there are new people or changes, it's a real hassle. Not to mention that the "free" is not really free since people typically have to call in to a single number in the US, which just pushes the toll charge on each caller (we've got members in Australia, India, and Europe). Yes, you can use Skype to call into the number, which reduces the cost, but increases the layers of technology that can fail or distract from the focus of the meeting.

It seems that OASIS could buy a few GoToMeeting licenses and let groups sign up for time slots .. might just need two licenses to handle everyone (I don't know the frequency of overlap, so this might not be accurate). Also, I'm assuming that most TCs do use some screen sharing app and not just audio (where a "free conference call" service may be a more reasonable option). If you split this cost up over the number of TCs, the cost is likely to be quite minimal.

It just doesn't seem right that TC members would need to "beg" for a slice of a corporate or personal license from another member. OASIS is a professional organization and seems like it should be providing the tools for its members to do their jobs as efficiently as possible. Has this been discussed before? I can't imagine that I'm the first person to bring it up.

Thanks,

...scott

On 2/27/12 7:02 AM, Chet Ensign wrote:

Hi Kris, 

No, we really don't. I use my Free Conference Call and my Free International Conference Call accounts for meetings that I organize. There is also a Freescreensharing facility from them although I haven't used it yet. And of course we have the Soaphub chat room facility (e.g. http://webconf.soaphub.org/conf/room/dita-help). But we don't have a web conferencing facility for TC use.  

/chet

On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 11:11 PM, Kristen Eberlein <keberlein@sdl.com> wrote:

Chet, does OASIS have a WebEx-type account that the DITA help SC could use for their meetings? Please let us know.

Best regards,

Kris

Kristen James Eberlein | DITA Architect and Technical Specialist | SDL Structured Content Technologies Division | (t) + 1 (919) 682-2290| keberlein@sdl.com

Santa Clara | March 5-6 www.sdl.com/innovate

 

 

 

From: dita-help@lists.oasis-open.org [mailto:dita-help@lists.oasis-open.org] On Behalf Of Scott Prentice
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 10:43 PM
To: tself@hyperwrite.com
Cc: dita-adoption-help@lists.oasis-open.org; dita-help@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [dita-help] Re: [dita-adoption-help] Meeting Scheduled for Monday

 

Hi Tony...

I've got a GoToMeeting account (not corporate, just the base model) that we could use if needed until a proper replacement is found.

Never really thought about his before, but it seems that OASIS should be providing this for these meetings, no? We shouldn't need to scrounge around for a method to communicate. Am I out of line in thinking this?

Cheers,

...scott

 
On 2/24/12 3:24 AM, Tony Self wrote:

Greetings colleagues

It looks like we might have lost access to the GoToMeeting service that

we've been using for the past couple of years, and I have been consequently

unable to set up the meeting for next Monday afternoon (US time). Could I

suggest we postpone the meeting until we've found a replacement WebEx or

GoToMeeting service?

Does anyone have a corporate GoToMeeting or WebEx service that we could use?

Best regards

Tony Self

Chair, DITA Help Subcommittee and DITA Adoption Help Subcommittee

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--

/chet 
----------------
Chet Ensign
Director of Standards Development and TC Administration 
OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society
http://www.oasis-open.org

Primary: +1 973-378-3472
Mobile: +1 201-341-1393

Follow OASIS on:
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--

/chet 
----------------
Chet Ensign
Director of Standards Development and TC Administration 
OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society
http://www.oasis-open.org

Primary: +1 973-378-3472
Mobile: +1 201-341-1393

Follow OASIS on:
LinkedIn:    http://linkd.in/OASISopen
Twitter:        http://twitter.com/OASISopen
Facebook:  http://facebook.com/oasis.open

--
Scott McGrath
COO
scott.mcgrath@oasis-open.org


Tel +1 781-425-5073 x202
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