At 11:44 AM 3/18/02 +0000, Paul Robinson wrote:
However, I remember occasions when reading a
draft and thinking to myself 'this is a *really* bad idea to implement' and
realising that the only way I was going to get heard was to get to the next
meetings. ...
I must challenge this assertion -- if you have a cogent argument why
something is a bad idea, and present it to the working group and/or as a
last-call comment, I believe it really does get heard.
Of course, not everyone will agree on what constitutes a cogent argument,
because different folks have different goals -- that's when it becomes
important to _listen_ to the responses as well as present your argument.
I don't deny that it helps to attend meetings -- if mainly because it helps
one to get a broader understanding of the issues -- but unlike just about
any other technical design committee I've experience of it's really not
essential to participate in person. Indeed, in my experience, the IETF
meetings are not really the place to get your argument *heard*. I think
they are most useful for testing new ideas.
If there's an important aspect of this cost-of-meetings debate, I think
it's to keep us all mindful that meeting attendance should not be seen as
necessary to get some work advanced or improved.
In addition, I still find it amazing that people are justifying costs due to
the number of breakfasts and cookies being served. The word 'ludicrous' is
overused on this list, but I think I've found a situation it applies to -
please, ask yourself whether the cookies are really needed. :-)
I've wondered about this, and I think that they're probably fairly
economical for the delegates: at IETF meetings, I typically skip hotel
breakfasts and use the breakfast buffet for my morning's fuel. Then there
are coffees that would otherwise be purchased - these things soon mount up
at hotel prices. And more importantly, it means that folks are not forced
to choose between useful discussion and wandering off to find food and
drink. Finally, there's a matter of logistics -- IETF meetings typically
overrun the available lunch facilities (lunches not being provided in the
package); I assert that laying out a buffet is a more efficient way of
feeding and watering the numbers involved.
#g
-------------------
Graham Klyne
<GK(_at_)NineByNine(_dot_)org>