Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 09:21:32 -0500
From: John C Klensin <klensin(_at_)jck(_dot_)com>
On the other hand, there is probably an interaction between
"presentations" and in-meeting personal activities that are not
WG-constructive (game-playing being only an extreme point). I
hope this isn't giving away any dirty little secrets, but, given
a slow-moving marketing-oriented presentation of material that
has already been discussed in I-Ds and on mailing lists, some
people will react by starting to scan email while waiting for
something useful to happen. And many of those people will
distinctly not be newcomers or quiet lurkers. I'm guilty of it,
and assume others are too.
I'm reminded of the time during the Secure Time BOF when the speaker was
droning on and on, so I pulled out the laptop and fired up the emacs,
and started doing some hacking. Someone (I think it was Barbara, but
I'm not sure) looked over, noticed the make running, and asked me how I
could concentrate well enough to be doing development work during a
presentation. I answered, "low bit rate", whereupon she looked again at
the slides, and said, "I guess you're right."
I tend to rate presentations by categories. There are the ones which
requre my full attention. Then there are ones where I can read e-mail
and keep an ear cocked for something interesting (whereupon I'll stop
reading e-mail and give them my full attention). And then.... there are
the presentations where I start doing kernel hacking. :-)
- Ted