[ubuntu-uk] UKTeam meeting update

[Alan Pope]

On Wed, Apr 11, 2007 at 08:27:41AM +0100, Nik Butler wrote:
> There are plenty of other 
> channels for meetings such as Skype, Talkshoe and Flashmeeting

All nice closed applications there. In addition to which for me ( someone 
who *does* participate and *does* use IRC ) they don't fit the bill for 
realtime communication with a large number of people from anywhere using any 
device. I can participate in a meeting from my PDA via Wifi, my mobile phone 
via GPRS, my laptop via wifi with an SSH client and so on. The barrier to 
entry on IRC is stunningly low. The barrier to entry for all the methods you 
mention are quite high (no skype client for my pda or phone, no flash player 
also, high bandwidth requirements for voice). 

I appreciate you were just listing a bunch of examples of "other ways" in 
which to communicate, but I really don't see how any of them can "beat" IRC. 
Especially now Ubuntu has IRC clients (GAIM/Pidgin) which are now familiar 
to people who use instant messengers. 

None of those technologies would be useful for a large number of people who 
need to communicate in real time. There are only two technologies I can 
think of that do, IRC and Jabber, both open, well documented technologies.

> I do however understand not using IRC I find it at times to be very high 
> in geek level utilisation and it comes with yet another group of 
> etiquette and "learned rules" which for many is just one more thing too far.
> 

That kind of implies that there are no "learned rules" or "etiquette" on the 
other systems. This clearly isn't the case. There is etiquette on the 
mailing list (preference for bottom posting, stripping and quoting 
correctly) and there would be on Skype (for example) too. If you held a 
meeting on Skype for example and I came online with Jono Bacon Style music 
blearing out in the background you'd disconnect me (either due to the content or 
presentation :) ). 

Etiquette and "learned rules" are things that people just have to damn well 
learn or they become difficult to tolerate in a community. This has nothing 
to do with mailing lists, forums, irc, skype or any other technology, but 
it's about people. People having respect for other members of their 
community. 

It's also about the way in which people are told. People can be informed how 
the community runs, and they can choose to adapt their behaviour to 
integrate with that community or they can continue to do whatever their 
poor-etiquette manifests as. Guess who is more likely to be listened to, 
respected and accepted?

Cheers,
Al.