Region 3 e-Conferencing
A Work in Progress

A Project Report by the
Region 3 e-Conf Project Team

The cost of conducting face-to-face meetings and conferences is proving to be a limiting factor in many projects within the IEEE, universities, and some industries. Can electronic conferencing fill the gap? The results of the e-Conferencing Project (e-Conf) in Region 3 are looking very promising. The journey continues, but the following milestones have been achieved so far:

• The e-Conferencing Guidelines (released at Sections Congress '99) was developed to provide a "road map" for IEEE entities that wish to use e-conferencing as an integral part of their communication process. In the first phase of the project, the guidelines concentrate on synchronous meeting tools and techniques that model face-to-face meetings. These guidelines go far beyond just applying technology to the problem; rather, they provide a relatively complete solution involving tools, sound meeting methods, and the experience of participants.

• On 29 January 2000, the Region 3 Executive Committee (Excom), with 31 members in attendance, conducted a business meeting utilizing the e-Conferencing Guidelines. The members, located in their homes or offices throughout the southeastern United States, were online for more than 4 hours (two 2-hour sessions). A full agenda, including a "closed" executive session, was completed successfully.

• The preparations for the Region 3 meetings at SoutheastCon in Nashville, TN (8-9 April 2000) utilized e-conferencing to conduct an Excom Caucus on 1 April 2000.

• Region 3's Excom has dedicated one hour of each of its last two face-to-face meetings for specialized training of e-conferencing principles. This training, dubbed "E-conferencing 101/102," prepared the Excom members and many area, council, and section chairs for the electronic conferencing process.

• Phase 2 of the Guidelines development is underway. The goal is to add asynchronous meeting techniques (web, e-mail, newsgroup, etc.) to the mix of tools and techniques available. Region 3's Excom has voted to set up a dedicated experimental server to speed these efforts along.

The current focus is on making the existing technology "friendly." The project itself is a product of collaboration, utilizing currently available electronic conferencing tools. The beneficiaries of the e-Conference Guidelines will still have a learning curve to overcome, but they will be able to concentrate on conducting their meetings without having to develop the meeting tools and methodologies, as well.

The design criteria includes:

• An emphasis on using currently available tools that can be easily installed and operated on the volunteer’s computing platform.

• A phased development/deployment, with ample opportunity for critical review based upon actual usage.

• Recommendations regarding automated tools will be developed based on those that are actually used in the project.

• Continual release of revisions to the Guidelines will take place following extensive use internally by the project team and external Beta Testing.

• Since "one-size-will-not-fit-all," the Guidelines should contain more of what to do rather than a cookbook of how to do it.

Check out the details of the project. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the members of the team by sending an email to r3-e-conf@ieee.org .

The Region 3 e-Conf Project Team (pictured above) is: Robert Duggan, David Green, Sean Haynes, Charles Lord, William Ratcliff, Richard Riddle, Lee Stogner, Brian Skelton, Brian Swail, and Allen Thomas.

[ IEEE-USA ]

Last Updated:  May 3, 2000