[Koha] General #koha IRC meeting times

[Thomas Dukleth]

How to equitably distribute meeting times for monthly #koha IRC meetings
is an open question.

People who have no time for formal analysis may opt to go directly to my
suggestion for meeting times at the end of this message.

IRC meetings with several participants are good for quick clarification of
issues but the reasonable time constraints on IRC meetings make such
meetings a poor venue for more careful reflection and discussion.  We have
the mailing lists for more careful reflection and discussion.

Despite much experience considering meeting times, the issue deserves some
degree of formal analysis.


1.  CONTEXT.

We have monthly general meetings on the #koha IRC channel which are open
to everyone.  They tend to last about one hour and are mostly concerned
with clarifying the state of development progress in real time for various
branches of Koha and other matters of administration.  Sometimes, votes
are taken at meetings on matters which are usually minor but occasionally
important matters such as project development roles.

More participation in Koha would be good even if meetings might became a
little longer or require some additional time management for meetings as a
consequence of more participation.

Choosing one time at which all interested people distributed throughout
the world could meet has always been difficult.  During most of the past
two years, we have made efforts to fairly distribute meeting times by
alternating the hour from one meeting to the next.


2.  CURRENT ISSUE.

The issue of changing the meeting time by 8 hours at each successive
meeting has been raised in recent meetings.  I am not certain whether that
was formally agreed but I question the wisdom of changing times by an
arbitrary 8 hours as we do not have an arbitrary global distribution of
people interested in Koha.

I conducted a trivial analysis of distribution of the population in
various time zones.  Maybe an examination would help avoid arithmetically
equal distribution of meeting times based on 24 hours where arithmetical
equality with clocks might not be equality for actual people which could
harm instead of help meeting participation.


3.  ASSUMPTIONS.

For the purpose of trivial analysis, I have taken some simple presumptions
which may reflect my own personal preferences but are not uninformed by
the experience of when people have and have not participated in meetings
at various hours.

The possibility that any particular meeting might need to address an
especially important issue should discourage choosing any meeting times
which would be extraordinarily difficult for most people interested in
Koha to attend.

I take avoiding sleep disruption by those motivated to participate to be
the most important consideration.  I presume that midnight to 6 AM local
time are the most problematic hours for starting a meeting and 2 AM to 4
AM to be the most problematic hours within that time.

I somewhat ignore issues of seasonal local time adjustments, regular
commuting times, school times, etc.  Please raise those issues if they
present a serious problem generally.

4.  SOURCES.

The Interactive Time Zone Map at
http://www.jgiesen.de/astro/astroJS/timezone/index.htm is helpful in
showing population centres in different time zones.


5. RELATIVELY LOW POPULATION TIME ZONES.

Relatively low population time zones might reasonably be given least
consideration for time preference until interest in Koha is more evenly
distributed globally.

UTC +11 - Time Zone L - New Caledonia

UTC -1 - Time Zone N - Cape Verde

UTC -9 - Time Zone V - Alaska, USA
UTC -10 - Time Zone W - Hawaii, USA
UTC -11 - Time Zone X - American Samoa; Midway Islands
UTC -12 - Time Zone Y - Marshall Islands

My suggestion about meeting times at the end is intended to be fair on a
global basis but is weighted towards higher population time zones than
those above.


6. RANGES OF HIGH POPULATION TIME ZONES.

6.1. EASTERN HEMISPHERE HIGH POPULATION RANGE.

6.1.1. EDGES OF EASTERN HEMISPHERE HIGH POPULATION RANGE.

UTC +12 - Time Zone M - New Zealand -
Avoid UTC 14 -16 or better avoid UTC 12 - 18

UTC +0 - Time Zone Z - Ghana; Iceland; Morocco; Portugal; Senegal; UK -
Avoid UTC 2 - 4 or better avoid UTC 0 - 6

6.1.2.  OVERALL EASTERN HEMISPHERE HIGH POPULATION RANGE.

Avoid UTC 14 - 23.59 and 0 - 4 or better avoid UTC 12 - 23.59 and 0 -6.


6.2. WESTERN HEMISPHERE HIGH POPULATION RANGE.

6.2.1. EDGES OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE HIGH POPULATION RANGE.

Time Zone P - Argentina; Brazil; Chile; Paraguay; Uruguay -
Avoid UTC 5 - 7 or better avoid UTC 3 - 9.

UTC -8 - Time Zone U - British Columbia, Canada; California, Oregon, and
UTC -3 -
Washington, USA -
Avoid UTC 10 - 12 or better avoid UTC 8 - 14.


6.2.2.  OVERALL WESTERN HEMISPHERE HIGH POPULATION RANGE.

Avoid UTC 5 - 12 or better avoid UTC 3 - 14.


7.  LEAST PROBLEMATIC TIMES AND PAST MEETING TIMES.

UTC 19 is outside the time range adverse for the western hemisphere high
population time zones and the outside edges of the eastern hemisphere high
population time zones.  UTC 19 has frequently been used for Koha meetings.

UTC 10 is best for the more populous eastern hemisphere than the less
populous western hemisphere.  UTC 10 has been used in alternation with UTC
19 for many Koha meetings.


8.  SUGGESTION.

Alternating between UTC 5, 10, and 19 with occasional adjustment for
seasonal changes in local time seems to me best for encouraging diverse
participation based on my trivial analysis.

However, UTC 5 maybe a sufficiently poor time for western Europe and
Africa that there would be no additional participation from people in
western Europe and Africa at UTC 5 relative to UTC 2.  If UTC 5 is a
sufficiently poor choice, then perhaps the UTC 2 hour chosen for the next
meeting may have no worse an effect on participation from western Europe
and Africa than UTC 2 which is a better choice for the western hemisphere
high population time zones.


Thomas Dukleth
Agogme
109 E 9th Street, 3D
New York, NY  10003
USA
http://www.agogme.com
+1 212-674-3783