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Re: IETF logistics

2000-12-21 19:50:03
On 12/21/00 at 3:05 PM -0800, Dave Crocker wrote:
At 04:51 PM 12/21/00 -0500, Scott Brim wrote:
On 20 Dec 2000 at 23:53 -0500, Valdis(_dot_)Kletnieks(_at_)vt(_dot_)edu 
apparently wrote:
I assume that by "Presentations", you mean "tutorial presentations", and not "Gee George, your proposal on the mailing list looks novel and interesting, but we're not getting it, could you take 10 mins in the WG meeting and explain it more fully" presentations?

I think we can succeed in using mail for clarification (like we're doing now). We all just have to be willing to look stupid now and then.

Sorry, no.  Not always.
[...]
Sometimes a quick presentation can clarify a point in a way that no amount of writing can accomplish. At least, for some writers and some readers.
[...]
If we first focus on the needed benefit out of each agenda item -- and, yes, whether it could instead be done on the list -- the details of how it is accomplished will be chosen appropriately.

Since everyone is surmising what I meant:

I was talking about agenda items determined pre-meeting. And I do think in that sense Dave is dead wrong: Presentations should *never* be such an agenda item: No I-D editor should ever have the need to make up a PowerPoint slide show. If something needs to be spoken about, it needs to be spoken about. If something needs to be written down, it can be sent to the list. If the draft is so wildly unclear in total, that can and should be dealt with on the list; otherwise it's an indication that maybe the editor is not up to the task. In any event, anything that requires a series of slides is (IMNSHO) by definition a tutorial presentation, and I again defy Dave to give me one example where such a presentation is a good idea.

However, it is perfectly acceptable at the face-to-face meeting for someone to bring up for discussion a "Gee editor, what the heck are you talking about?" question and get the editor to answer, even if that takes them talking for 10 minutes. Even if on the list before the meeting, the editor has to say, "This really needs me to draw a diagram that's too hard to send to the list and I'll show it to you at the next IETF meeting", that could be OK, though in this day and age it's pretty unlikely that a GIF can't be posted to the web and let people look at it there. But I don't have a problem with presentations that answer questions about the draft. What I do have a problem with is presentations that describe the draft (in whole or in part) when noone has asked for clarification.

pr

--
Pete Resnick <mailto:presnick(_at_)qualcomm(_dot_)com>
Eudora Engineering - QUALCOMM Incorporated
Ph: (217)337-6377 or (858)651-4478, Fax: (858)651-1102



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