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On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 4:43 PM, Tobias Klausmann <klausman@g.o>wrote: |
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> |
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> It depends how you run it. We have teams having a video thing |
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> open during the day with there geographically-diverse other team |
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> members and it works well for them. For those teams, it also |
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> improves cohesion. Geographically-diverse teams always have to |
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> actively fight the us-vs-them vibe that seems to be fundamental |
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> human nature. Aforementioned video link is part of that. |
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> |
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Sure, but first of all these are private meetings, and not public ones. |
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Even more, they are meetings private to the company, and not even with |
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customers. You can tell that the response to a public vs private meeting is |
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definitely different. I've witnessed before people trying go show off even |
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more just because a camera is involved, which can be obnoxious, in my |
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opinion. |
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> > And unlike IRC meetings, you can cannot multitask, say making |
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> > your dinner while discussing this or that feature. |
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> |
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> As others have pointed out, this is a double edged sword: |
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> Sometimes, having less distraction (or getting away with less |
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> distraction) is a Good Thing. |
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> |
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|
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Yeah sure if you can afford it. One thing that people seem to miss is that |
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Gentoo is _not_ an employment. And while we'd like to keep professional |
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behaviour, the system of incentives and disincentives that work for an |
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employment position do not apply to organizations like Gentoo. |
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|
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> |
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> > A VC is a full commitment, and its attractiveness is often much |
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> > higher _before_ you use it.. |
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> |
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> This does not hold true for me. I'd never used VC before joining |
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> my current company, and I love it -- iff the alternative is not |
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> meeting at all or text-only. As I pointed out above, it is |
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> crucial for team cohesion. |
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> |
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Sure and in some ways it's a least worst option. On the other hand you and |
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I both know that it's not as easy as saying "okay let's all meet at 7" — |
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timezones, hardware issues, connection issues, you name it. We sidestep |
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most of these issues as the various problems have been ironed out before.. |
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but to start doing "regular" hangouts between Gentoo teams? It's going to |
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involve lots of work. |
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> If you want to have a distincly productive meeting, you need an |
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> agenda/goals and someone to _run_ the meeeting. But that is true |
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> of IRC meetings, too. |
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> |
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> About the only thing that IRC meetings are invariably better at, |
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> is logging. Note, however, that logging is no replacment for |
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> agendas or summarizing the outcome of the meeting. |
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> |
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On the other hand, I would be _very_ much against using Hangouts for |
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anything that involves decision-making or explanation of future planning, |
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for the very reasons I originally pointed out: |
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* they require too much time set aside (I can't even lurk a Hangout if I'm |
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cooking, or working, or my phone only knows what); |
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* they are not for everyone (English is not universal as we'd wish it is — |
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if it wasn't for last year's experience, I wouldn't want speaking English |
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in public; William also pointed out another reason); |
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* I don't expect a great signal to noise, not only at the beginning but |
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throughout: try to imagine an unmoderated IRC channel being spoken aloud, |
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then add a bunch of "can you hear/see me?" from every other participant, |
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the "what did you say? I can't understand you" and so on so forth. |
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Honestly, I see as much potential to cause further issues in a team as |
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there is to solve them. |