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Re: Sunday tutorials, newcomers, and remote participants

2014-11-08 08:59:26
John

Thanks for the nudge. I'll look into this today to see what we can get done for 
tomorrow. 

Ray


On Nov 8, 2014, at 3:10 AM, John C Klensin <john-ietf(_at_)jck(_dot_)com> 
wrote:

Hi.

As others debate things we should do about allowing people to
attend IETF meetings in the future, I want to note a present
issue that has been raised before but apparently not addressed
in practice.

We've developed a tradition of doing a number of tutorials on
Sundays.  There are "only" four of them tomorrow, but they all
seem interesting and at least three, maybe all four, are
relevant to newcomers -- whether those newcomers are local or
remote and even whether they are likely to be local in future
meetings.  

Done well, they have the potential to be immensely helpful to
people not familiar with a particular topic (or the IETF in
general).  Even a poor job is better than nothing.  That help is
even more important for those who are remote because things are
harder to understand when one is not in the room and because we
offer nothing in the way of support, even to the extent of
little smiley faces on badges.

We've also been told, repeatedly, that, for those not extremely
able in listening to spoken English, having slides and other
materials available in advance is extremely helpful, even to the
point of making the difference between a session that is
understood and one that is an incomprehensible waste of time.

And yet, as of now, the day before those sessions, there again
appears to be no arrangements for video or even audio or those
sessions.  Neither the  tools agenda nor the meeting materials
page indicates any of them as having either an outline or slides
posted.  Nothing.  The newcomer's introduction itself is given,
with small variations, at every meeting.  I know the slides from
previous ones are online.  They would at least provide hints,
but it isn't obvious from any of the meeting pages where to find
them.

So, assuming the IETF actually cares about remote attendees and
newcomers, perhaps even about newcomer remote attendees, why is
there no video or audio for those Sunday sessions?   Why does
there not seem to be a plan for getting those sessions online so
they can be viewed between meetings?  And why are slides and
background materials not posted?  As a final question, since the
Nomcom is presumably starting to make decisions this week, who
is accountable for the apparent lack of progress on this subject
despite the fact that it has been pointed out as a problem
several times before?

Grumble.   
  john