--On Monday, 27 March, 2006 09:31 -0500 Edward Lewis
<Ed(_dot_)Lewis(_at_)neustar(_dot_)biz> wrote:
But to get back to the point at the top of this side-bar, the
mass gatherings for the IETF are done for cross-area review.
Ok, we disagree about the believe that cross-area review is the
only reason for holding such meetings and hence disagree about...
Again, the above isn't a "shot" at the particular meeting, but
back to the observation that IETF meetings are held to provide
cross-area review. If a WG accidentally makes progress at the
time, well, that has to be brought back "to the list" anyway.
The discussion in this case may have been needed by the core
members of the WG, however, this was done forfeiting the
opportunity cost of interacting with a wider circle of people.
I.e., the room and time slot (which was changed to avoid a
conflict) could have been put to more general use - and use an
interim meeting or mail thread for the focused discussion.
Sorry, but sometimes face to face meetings serve the very
important role of permitting discussion and even confrontation
of issues. Those are things that, often, can't be done
effectively or efficiently on mailing lists. Such discussions
can also bring in a community of experts in the general area who
have not paid in-depth attention to the WG's subject matter -- a
result that is at least as important, if not more so, than
cross-area review. So I believe that such meeting time is
often well-spent. YMMD, of course.
john
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