Dave, This issue comes up constantly and no group has found any solutions which are ideal.
Some folks suggest meetings using, say Gnome meeting, and then they're doled it's hard to set up, so Skype is suggested. Then some say Skype is proprietary, so we should switch to a phone conference system. Those cost money, and even when we use them, often there's noise, or it's hard to hear people, and significant time is spent dealing with phone issues. It's then suggested IRC is better because there are no audio issues. Then some, like you, complain about IRC. The time issue isn't solvable either. Finding a time that works with everyone, with different schedules, is hard enough. Now add the fact that OSM members are distributed around the world, and the problem is simply not solvable. Many of us have tried tools to help with this, like Doodle, and we've tried having meetings at different times, and neither one works. People always feel left out if they can't attend, and having different meeting times just makes people apt to miss the meetings, and then you get different meetings with non-overlapping attendees. The frustration you hear from folks like Steve stems from the fact that folks like Grant and the others in the project put in their personal time and effort to make this project as good as they can make it, and so often instead of due praise for working so diligently trying to make the project succeed, they get a lot of criticism from the community. It's easy for us to forget how much time and energy it takes to do the kind of work Grant and others do, and while I'm not saying they or anyone else is immune from criticism, I think that it needs to be measured against their good works. Dave, if you have a suggestion that would let us communicate in real time (not over weeks via email) then please share this with the group. - Serge _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
