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Re: [IETF] Re: [IETF] Travel/Attendees list FAQ

2011-12-08 10:38:35

On Dec 8, 2011, at 11:00 AM, Paul Hoffman wrote:

On Dec 7, 2011, at 6:49 PM, Dave CROCKER wrote:

Actually, I meant wiki according to its classic, collaborative meaning:

 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki>

What you folks are describing is a web page, not really a wiki.

Exactly, and that is appropriate for something whose primary target is 
organizations that are giving large amounts of money and time to the IETF. A 
"collaborative page" can easily go sideways with contributors who don't 
understand the parameters of what is meant to be there.

Yes, and who have very little incentive to add stuff -- for example, look at 
the WG Chairs wiki ( http://wiki.tools.ietf.org/group/wgchairs/ )-- the 
subtitle is: "Everything a WG Chair Needs to Know but Was Afraid to Ask" . This 
site is far from useful[0], and hasn't been kept up to date (mnot made some 
changes ~ 6months ago, 22months ago Marc changed some email addresses, 2 years 
ago Tony changed a URL or two, most of the content is 5 years old). It is *far* 
from "everything a WG Chair needs to Know" -- something like this aimed at the 
event folk / organizers at a sponsor is not going to reflect well on the IETF 
and is not going to help lead to a successful meeting.

If we ended up with the opposite problem (everyone editing), things would be 
much much worse -- anyone reading this would assume that we are a bunch of 
childish, blithering idiots -- go read some previous Attendees lists and sample 
random threads (the "Hilton clock" thread: 
http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/80attendees/current/msg00271.html , the 
"CD is a chocolate?" thread, the infamous Maastricht train threads) -- these 
are the sorts of things that folk might add the the Wiki -- it this really the 
image we want to be projecting?

Wiki's are a great idea, *for some things*, but (IMO) this is not one of them.

W


[0]: Yes, I *know* it's a wiki and I can / should go edit it myself, but, 
well....

In many cases such as WGs, such sideways motion is fine; for a page whose 
audience are often people who don't know about the IETF but are tasked with 
deciding whether or not to give us significant financial support.

--Paul Hoffman

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