Suggestions: First meeting, offer for introduction, Wiki

Dear working group leaders

We were pleased to find that some working groups have already managed to fix a date for their first meeting. However, it appears that others encounter more difficulties in finding a date that suits everyone due to busy schedules and public holidays. In order not to lose too much time with organizational issues, we suggest the following procedure:

• Fix the date where most people can attend (preferably before end of April, but first week of May at the latest).
• Invite those who can't attend to send a deputy.
• If they can't (or don't wish to) send a deputy, invite them to send their input in written in advance (or in any other form, according to your preferences).
• They will receive the meeting minutes and output and will have the oppurtunity to comment on it and/or complement it.
• Make sure that the date for the next meeting(s) suits these people, if ever possible.

We think that this approach might be acceptable to everybody; however, it goes without saying that you are free to proceed any other way as you like.

As you know, someone from project management will be available at the meetings. It is not our intention to interfere with your work, yet we would offer to give a brief introduction to the project at the beginning, if you agree. The presentation (10 minutes) would include:

• overview of the entire OSS selection process: goals and project approach
• comments on the figures "tool categories and interfaces" and scenario examples from the briefing document
• risks (in order to raise awareness)
• appeal to attendants to represent their organizations' interests and to feed back the workshop results to their organizations
• purpose and use of Wiki

We will be able to send you a draft of the presentation by the end of this week.

A Wiki has been set up where each working group has its own area: http://www.edutech.ch/wiki/pmwiki.php/SWITCHelp/HomePage Edit password sent by email.

We would encourage you to make use of it for the exchange of all kinds of files. Notice that read access is possible without password, and that only write access is password-protected (same password for all working group participants). The details will be sent out to all working group participants by mail by the end of the week.

We will contact you in the next few days to discuss a few more issues, but please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions in the meantime.

Kind regards,

Urs Gröhbiel head of project management