Re: [egov] Groups - London Oasis E-gov conference added

[jon.bosak@sun.com]

[h.j.m.burg@minfin.nl:]

| SUMMARY:London Oasis E-gov conference
| 
| DESCRIPTION:The conference is planned after the OASIS adoption
| forum in The Russel Hotel London. Information about the adoption
| forum on the OASIS website. The forum is not for free the TC
| conference is free of charge.  On TC face to face meetings no
| dial inn facilities will be present anymore.  OASIS members who
| plan to come please register via an e-mail to the TC chair. The
| meeting room has a fixed capacity. The reserve the right room it
| is nessesary that registration is done as soon as possible but no
| later than september 30, 2005

I'm somewhat taken aback at the decision to disallow dial-ins at
egov meetings.  I am well aware (believe me!) of the cost and
logistical difficulties of setting up telephone access to TC
meetings, and even more aware of the difficulty of hearing
anything from a remote location; at best, it's possible to hear
only half the people physically present at the meeting, and often
it's a lot worse than that.  Few people will attempt to overcome
these difficulties and dial in, and absent visual cues, it's often
hard for remote callers to participate effectively.

Having said all that, however, the fact remains that holding egov
meetings without phone access means that attendance will be
limited to people with generous travel budgets, i.e., some
government employees and some large vendors.  As a citizen, I
don't much like the thought of my government employees determining
public IT policy in meetings dominated by large vendors.  And I
think that restricting meetings to attendance in person positions
the TC very poorly to cope with travel costs that will be
undergoing drastic increases over the next couple of years due to
the increasing cost of fuel.  We should be working to overcome the
obstacles presented by remote participation, not simply giving up
on it.

Jon