On Feb 4, 2009, at 6:15 PM, Matt Hogstrom wrote:
First off, conference calls are not taboo.
I should mention that this is not a universally held opinion in the ASF and the Incubator PMC in particular. As for me I think that phone calls to resolve technical issues is fine so long as they are published. As Matt mentions below, you should try to give ample notice about the meeting.
Finally, after the meeting be prepared to rehash any technical discussion or have any decision upturned by the community at large. More specifically there is nothing final about phone meetings; they are there to expedite dialog, nothing more.
I'd go ahead with the call and see who can make it. Heck, your phone number is now Googleable which is kind of nice :) Take lots of notes and make sure to post the results back to the list so people can read what happened and comment. The fact that you posted the time and the meeting and what you wanted to discuss on the list is excellent. I'd be concerned if I saw an e-mail that said something like, "We met over at NC State yesterday and decided that ..." That would definitely not be good; decisions are made via e-mail with community input. Apache Geronimo had a spot of confusion a couple of years ago when a number of committers met at Java One and the meeting location and time we're not well communicated.
Oy. Trust me, you don't want to repeat that. /me messages his sore rear... Regards, Alan
