Subject: RE: this is insane.

From: "Spencer Dawkins" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 07:17:29 -0500

Fred, we made the comment last night that one problem was the working group
chairs didn't have good estimates of the number of people who would be
showing up in their workgroups:

My impression is that certain workgroups (not just BOFs) have spiked beyond
all expectation (I'm thinking diffserv, VPN, and a couple of others), and
that it's hard to imagine WG chairs having good forecasts for some of these
mega-groups.

Is it possible to imagine people expressing interests in attending WG
meetings at registration time, so that the WG chairs don't have to read
their minds (more than usual)?

The obvious flaws are:

People register before we know what WGs will be meeting (this would be most
significant for WGs that form just prior to the next IETF, and for
first-time BOFs),

Schedule conflicts would not be taken into account (although it might be
easier to avoid them if the registration process identified significant
conflicts among attendees expressing preferences)

The process would not be precise (we would still need excess capacity).

But might this help?

(Quoting Eric Travis:) "I may not be the brightest candle in the room, but
..." I also hear lots of first- and second-time attendees that think they
need to be in a meeting every time there is a meeting; I'm still learning
how much of the IETF meeting happens in the halls outside, and not just
during the breaks. This is one of the nicest things about Orlando - we can
go outside in the sun, so there's plenty of space for these conversations
(that take people out of the meeting rooms). (Let's NOT do this in Ottawa in
January, unless the strategy is to freeze the tourists to death!)

Another possibility is to assume that if 500 people show up for a BOF (in
Washington DC, for example), they aren't all solving the same problem,
anyway!

Spencer

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From: Tony Hansen <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 16:48:42 -0500

> their minds (more than usual)?

I personally would have no problem filling out a quick survey when I pick up my
registration packet indicating which meetings I thought (at that point in time)
that I would be attending. These surveys would not be binding, signed, tracked,
or include any other information about who filled it out. In other words, if you
change your mind afterwards, no problem.

These updated estimates might actually be accurate to within 10%, and would only
be used to validate the WG/BOF chairs' preliminary estimate. Then, if there WERE
a large discrepancy, something could be done about it BEFORE the meeting starts.

Of course, this would place a new burden on the secretariat and facilitators, to
be balanced with fewer problems and frustrations on everyone else's parts.

    Tony Hansen
    [email-masked]

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From: Tony Hansen <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 16:48:42 -0500

Tony Hansen
    [email-masked]