From: Paul Hoffman [paul(_dot_)hoffman(_at_)vpnc(_dot_)org]
Instead, I propose that we simply designate the terminal room (which
is already reserved for future meetings) be designated as meeting
areas where talking is allowed / encouraged. Earplugs could be
provided for people who really want a quiet Ethernet connection; the
cost of those for the Secretariat will be about $25/meeting.
I agree with Mary here, we really don't want to turn the terminal room
into a talking room.
The problem with the earplug idea is that earplugs don't dampen human
voices to the point where they don't cause your brain to try to track
conversations, because earplugs uniformly cut the volume of both
voices and background noise. Since your brain's audio processing
system has an excellent AGC (automatic gain control), the recognition
of voices is unimpaired.
Dale