[J3] (SC22WG5.6212) October meeting - Go Virtual/Mixed-mode, or be discriminatory

[Vipul Parekh]

On Sat, May 2, 2020 at 7:44 PM Steve Lionel via J3 <
j3 at mailman.j3-fortran.org> wrote:

> On 5/2/2020 7:25 PM, Vipul Parekh via J3 wrote:
>
> It will be highly remiss of both ISO and INCITS to not allow
> virtual participation in any governance and technical meetings during the
> rest of 2020 and likely through 2021, or at least until a time the risk
> assessments with COVID-19 outbreak have been lowered sufficiently and the
> public heath emergency declarations by international organizations such as
> W.H.O. and national bodies such as US C.D.C have been lifted.  To not do so
> will be highly discriminatory against those possible participants who,
> given their own personal health considerations or of those in their care or
> environs, are in a "high risk" category.
>
> ISO and INCITS already *allow *virtual participation, so this is not an
> issue.
>
My impression really is there is indeed some issues somewhere, if not with
ISO and INCITS then perhaps they are with WG5, J3 in that both recent email
frenzy as well as prior email discussions on J3/WG5 mailing lists have
"implied" ISO/INCITS *may not bar* virtual attendance but that there might
be constraints when it comes to *participation*.

There is a big difference here.  To allow for virtual attendance means
these 2 orgs not only clear up any procedural hurdles there may be when it
comes to a participant attending remotely (who can submit papers, talk,
vote, conduct presentations, etc.) but that the orgs also extend
appropriate resources to make virtual participation a success.  The
resources may simply be suggestions and/or code-of-conduct guides and
communication such as stressing to all groups the importance of inclusivity
considerations on how to *properly* manage mixed-mode meetings e.g., the
use of electronic views (shared screens, links, documents, images/buttons,
etc.) instead of visual/verbal communications and gestures and other
interpersonal interactions characteristic of face-to-face meetings to
achieve progress on discussions.  And resources may also cover providing
software/hardware and perhaps some funding.  Considering the dangers
globally with life, limb, and livelihood during this COVID-19 pandemic, WG5
and J3 in conjunction with ISO and INCITS has to either "pull out all the
stops" to enable virtual participation and try to make the remote attendee
as involved and productive as in-person attendees.  Or consider
postponement of all the activities and go idle.  The timeline for this may
extend to all of 2020, perhaps 2021 and cut into 2022 even.


> I have already started investigating what we would need to do this for the
> October meeting, should it happen. (I have heard suggestions ISO might
> extend the ban on in-person meetings further.) As has been discussed
> recently, the time zone issue is a real killer for WG5, not so much for J3
> (except for Malcolm, who is a critical member of J3, and lives in Japan.)
> If nothing else we will need to restructure the (largely J3-oriented)
> schedule we follow that assumes everyone is present.
>
> I had a productive talk the other day with Bryce Lelbach, PL22 chair, on
> how we can acquire the hardware we need to make this work. Both ISO and
> INCITS already offer the software.
>
That is very good to read.  It will be useful for everyone to keep in mind
2 aspects: 1) WG5 and J3 are hardly the first groups to face issues with
time-zone differences and 2) to be flexible and adapt to the changing
circumstances is what is incumbent upon everyone everywhere during this
pandemic.  There are any number of lessons to be learned from other teams
who achieve progress and success in spite of a wide geographical
distribution of team members.

Toward this, I'm personally highly encouraged by Bryce Leibach's interest
in and contributions to Fortran committees and I can already see his
attendance and guidance at future Fortran meetings will be most valuable.
Thank you Bryce and welcome to Fortran.

Regards,
Vipul Parekh
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