With the increasing pressure to reduce the number of meetings, there is a need to replace physical meetings as far as possible with electronic forms of communication. This means analysing what meetings actually do and how they work in practice, whether the present state of information technologies can replace all or part of these functions, and how a virtual Earthwatch Working Party might work in practice. The role of meetings 2.
Meetings play a particular function in the processes of consultation and decision-making.
They require a significant time commitment, and perhaps a financial commitment if travel is involved, from each participant, forcing full concentration upon the subject for an extended period. This includes preparing and reading documentation in advance of the meeting, participating in dynamic discussions involving information exchange, collective exploration and evolution of new ideas, group evaluation and consensus building, leading to accepted conclusions. For overloaded UN officials, meetings may be the only way to get their full attention and effective input. The official documentation is a permanent record of the meeting, and may give authority to future actions. Electronic communications tend to be ephemeral, and do not have the authority at present of real meetings between decision-makers.