On Jan 6, 2011, at 11:26 AM, Alessandro Vesely wrote:
I've never attended an IETF meeting. Why? Because it seems to me quite
unlikely to have a chance to say something useful by going there. I mean
useful with respect to a problem that I consider important. That is, not
just a minimal contribution to an already scheduled session that I may happen
to attend. Perhaps, I should request a session...
Problems are often expressed in the form of tentative solutions. Such
solutions may occasionally happen to be discussed, refined, and agreed upon
by a group of individuals. Implementation, standardization, and adoption may
eventually follow --not necessarily in this order. Isn't this how the IRTF
and the IETF should work?
A poster session would be a sort of plenary, lasting a couple of hours or so,
with posters hanged on numbered hardboard panels arranged along a walkway. A
poster may be sized A0, or ~50 in, or consist of an equivalent number of
smaller sheets. Posters may stay exposed for a few hours before/after the
scheduled time period. During the session time, however, authors should
stand beside their posters and thus have their chance to talk to any
interested ietfers, one by one or in small knots, informally. A few dozens
of posters per session may provide for adequate gathering.
IME, this way of participating is easier and less binding for both authors
and attendees. A poster would suit subjects for which it's difficult to
carve a niche within a hosting WG's session, but it may also work as a means
to achieve consensus on a given topic before raising it in a more official
discussion.
Opinions/suggestions?
Hi Alessandro.
Following the Maastricht meeting, there was a lively discussion of a similar
issue. The way things are, you need a lot of support to present an idea at a
BoF, so the usual way to present new things has become to publish a "bar BoF"
and present there. Despite the name, the modern bar BoF is not held in a bar,
but rather in the empty conference rooms during lunch time and late in the
evening. Understandably, people don't like this much.
There have been a few suggestions for alternate ways of presenting and
gathering supporters. One such suggestion is in this draft:
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-nir-non-wg-presentations-01
A poster session sounds cool, but it works well when the presenters are
companies, rather than individuals. To get a good A0 poster, you need access to
printing services (which are not cheap, but doable) and graphic design talent,
which is neither cheap nor common in IETF attendees. To get such a poster up,
I would need either my company's sponsorship, or else use my own talents in
graphic design: Hmm, #12FF12. Now there's a nice shade of green for a
background. As for fonts, let's go with Mistral, because
http://www.cracked.com/funny-5647-fonts .
Seriously, though, most of the presentation slides you see in an IETF meeting
are either black-on-white with way too much text, sometimes adding some default
design from the software, or else they're extremely well designed, where you
know there's been some company sponsorship. Some of the Internet-of-Things
presentations in recent IETF meetings are examples of the latter. I think
that's too high a bar to set for new ideas that still don't have much traction.
It could be done with some booths instead of the posters - maybe some desks
arranged around a room.
Yoav
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