One of the contributors, in my opinion, to the evolution of an "ad hoc meeting
in a bar" to "Bar Bof" as Fred defines it has been a series of small actions,
intended to facilitate the organization ad hoc meetings, that have had the
unintended consequence of increasing the apparent close relationship between a
Bar BoF, an IETF meeting and the WG formation process:
Specifically:
* AD attendance at Bar Bofs
Intention (at least speaking for myself): early awareness
Unintended consequence: formal invitations and expected attendance
* scheduling unused meeting rooms during IETF meetings, usually
over lunch or after
Intention: avoid the overhead of finding a non-conficting
space for a meeting
Unintended consequence: Extra admin overhead for IETF secretariat;
Bar BoFs look more like formally scheduled IETF events
* conversation about Bar BoF scheduling on IETF mailing lists
Intention:
Unintended consequence: Bar BoFs are widely advertised and many
of attendees are in listen-only mode
* posting of Bar Bof logistics on an IETF wiki
Intention: central location for Bar BoF logistics
Unintended consequence: Bar BoFs look more like formally scheduled
IETF events
I will confess to describing a problem here without suggesting an associated
solution. It's hard to support banning any one of these actions taken
individually. Taken together, they seem to move us away from ad hoc meetings
to an unplanned additional layer of formalism in our process.
- Ralph
On Jul 29, 2010, at 4:00 PM 7/29/10, Fred Baker wrote:
[...]
Let me explain what a Bar BOF is, and what it is not. Our formal BOFs are
scheduled with an AD, and are generally for formalizing a charter. The
assumption is that a prior ad hoc process, usually on a mailing list or via
telephone or conferencing systems has happened, and a work item has matured
to the point that we have interested people, proto-specifications or at least
problem statements, and so on.
The initiation point of that is often-but-not-always a handful of people
talking over a meal or in a bar on a topic, often having convened mere
moments before. Sketches might be drawn on napkins, and people that are
hungry or thirsty have a waiter/waitress at hand to deal with that. A Bar
BOF, as such small gatherings are called, is *not* a full-blown meeting of
perhaps hundreds of people placed at a mealtime but in a place that prevents
them from eating. It does not require powerpoint, and is not a catered event.
It is not ten minutes stolen from some other subject. Key concept: we respect
each other and each other's time, and so we meet in a place that has food and
drink, and we have an intimate conversation among people who will be
interested to carry on some work item.
[...]
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