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

[jon.bosak@sun.com]

[peter@justbrown.net:]

| Many OASIS TC F2F meeting take place in the USA and use dial-in
| conference call facilities that are Toll Free from within the
| USA/Canada only. As in individual member, if it wasn't for my
| employer being generous, I would clock up a phone bill of $100 per
| dial-in meeting, and *that* is a major hurdle for participation.

Agreed, but I don't see this as having anything to do with
geographic location.  The farther away you are, the more it's
going to cost.  If it's easier/cheaper for you to attend in
person, then attend in person.  If it's easier/cheaper for you to
call in, then call in.  I was objecting to not having the choice.
I don't see that there is anything OASIS can or should do about
this; the organization is not in a position to dictate either
phone or travel rates.

| I guess a paid-for dial-in facility for the London meeting would
| be acceptable, rather than nothing at all?

If you mean a facility that would allow people to call in at their
own expense, then yes, that would be better than nothing at all.

I will repeat that I don't mean to minimize either the hassle of
setting up a conference call or the limited usefulness of phone
participation (let alone the difficulty of accommodating the
agenda to various people's time zones).  We struggle with these
problems every time we hold a UBL TC meeting.  But I really don't
think people understand what's going to happen with travel costs
over the next 2-3 years.  We are either going to figure out how to
conduct global business without travel or give up on the idea of
doing this work on a global basis and fall back to regional
associations.

Jon