When I started attending IETF meetings in 1996, it was after about 6 years of
reading mailing lists, at a time when "netetiquette"
or "Internet 101" was actively taught. We (because I taught others after
learning it) taught people enough about how email worked so that
they would understand basic things like quoting intelligently. Further, in
1996, the IETF had not entered the "endless September"
(even though the Internet might have as a whole), and had time to actually
guide people, and I am thankful to have learned what I did.
The newcomer's orientation were simpler (because there was less to learn), but
they occurred, and having attended Scott's orientation
again this year (in Paris), I think they continue to do a very good job for the
person who is attending.
They don't work at all for the person who has yet to attend a meeting. We have
a slow influx of very smart people who can and
do read all of rules, but like all organizations, not all of our rules are
equally applied. It's also possible that some grey beards
who have only remote attended for years (Yes, I thinking about you Melinda,
Keith...) might have missed some subtle change in process.
The IETF's endless september mostly ended after the bust, leaving us, I think,
in a summer session with few new people; I'd put us in January now.
Few freshmen joining.
What I am writing about is that I think that we a problem with transfer
students... those who did their september elsewhere, and
have now switched schools for the winter semester. It doesn't occur to them
that they don't know how the IETF works... it must work
like other SDOs, they think. Worse of all, I think, many of these people have
doing what they thought was email for around a decade,
(yes, using Outlook), they have no idea how email works, nor do they even know
there is another interface. They simply do not know what happens
to their mis-formatted emails, and why often this results in people being
unable to listens to them in the mailing list.
I don't have an answer to this; I'm not even sure there is a problem; I have a
problem of writing too long emails.
I got thinking about this while reading this blog entry about
structureless-ness:
http://eaves.ca/2009/07/06/structurelessness-feminism-and-open/
In particular he notes the way that Elites form/exist. I would quote it here,
but it's hard to take it out context, so please read it.
Let me suggest that at the IETF, where the mailing list is king, you can't join
the Elite if you can't quote email properly.
Maybe we should *state* this.
Maybe I'm also concerned because many in the former "elite" have moved to Apple
Mail, and it seems that it is bug
compatible with Outlook in it's assumption that format=flowed is the default,
an act which destroys email quoting, and therefore discussion.
--
Sent from my android transformer, running CM9