Longer or more meetings?

[Dave Crocker]

Margaret,

Saturday, December 7, 2002, 7:51:14 AM, you wrote:
Margaret> If a person/company doesn't have the budget to travel to meetings to
Margaret> work on a protocol, what is the chance that they have the resources to
Margaret> implement the protocol and/or make it a commercial success?

The formal rules of the IETF place the mailing list as the ultimate venue,
and actually cast face to face meetings as slightly more than brief
discussions by a subset of the working group.

So, you are raising a key question: Why has the IETF focus been on mailing
list participation, rather than face to face participation? Face to face is
more efficient. However there is a mitigating concern: openness.  Not just
fishbowl openness for reviewing what has happened, but inclusive openness to
ensure the broadest possible participation.

>From RFC 2418 (IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures):

   2. Session venue

   Each working group will determine the balance of email and face-to-
   face sessions that is appropriate for achieving its milestones.
   Electronic mail permits the widest participation; face-to-face
   meetings often permit better focus and therefore can be more
   efficient for reaching a consensus among a core of the working group
   participants.  In determining the balance, the WG must ensure that
   its process does not serve to exclude contribution by email-only
   participants.  Decisions reached during a face-to-face meeting about
   topics or issues which have not been discussed on the mailing list,
   or are significantly different from previously arrived mailing list
   consensus MUST be reviewed on the mailing list.
   ...

   It
   is important to note, however, that Internet email discussion is
   possible for a much wider base of interested persons than is
   attendance at IETF meetings, due to the time and expense required to
   attend.

The benefits of making it so easy for random (unfunded, non-specialist)
participation are real. The cost iare real, too, as we see with disruptive
participants. However the dominant view in the IETF has been that it is more
than worth it.

If we move to being fundamentally face-to-face oriented, we block out many
useful contributors.

d/
-- 
 Dave Crocker  <mailto:dhc@dcrocker.net>
 TribalWise <http://www.tribalwise.com>
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