Subject: RE: Outlawing PowerPoint (Was: a suggestion....)

From: "Spencer Dawkins" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 08:16:49 -0500

My impression was that the format Vern and Scott used for RUTS and PILC last
week was very effective for BOFs that are trying to do the "unified field
theory" thing.

This involved presenters that had something like five minutes and a
strongly-suggested format of three slides and one subject area. This allowed
the audience to soak up lots of experience in a short period of time
(honestly, how many of us have significant experience with ALL the protocols
that were presented in RUTS?)

I like the "polite fiction" that we participate as individuals. Compared to
other standards organizations I've attended, there is significantly less
pressure on us to come up with "corporate positions" on a topic before we
discuss it at IETF, and more pressure to listen to competing proposals and
steal the best parts of each.

The one part of the PowerPoint era I like is the practice of putting author
and presenter names on the first slide. Especially in RUTS and PILC, where
we had the goal of bringing together communities of interest that haven't
worked closely together in the past, it is very helpful to get exact names,
including spellings, and e-mail addresses, for follow-up after the
face-to-face sessions. There's usually at least one person in each BOF/WG
that I attend that I never hear a full name for. Sometimes I can get them
off the agendas on the net, but sometimes I end up doing name resolution via
e-mail to WG chairs!

Spencer

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From: Daniel Senie <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 11:05:32 -0500

> week was very effective for BOFs that are trying to do the "unified field

These were two of the best run BOFs I've attended. The format was good,
the presentations short, and the problem set well defined through the
use of these presentations. These sessions would make good models for
other BOFs to follow.

Dan

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Daniel Senie                                        [email-masked]
Amaranth Networks Inc.            http://www.amaranthnetworks.com

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From: Daniel Senie <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 11:05:32 -0500

Dan