Network Working Group L. Eggert
Internet-Draft Nokia
Intended status: Informational March 25, 2010
Expires: September 26, 2010
Considerations for Having a Successful Bar BOF Session
draft-eggert-successful-bar-bof-00
Abstract
During recent IETF meetings, bar BOF ("birds of a feather") sessions
have increasingly become indistinguishable from official IETF BOFs or
sometimes even IETF working group meetings. This document argues
that this recent trend is not helpful in reaching the ultimate goal
of many of these bar BOFs (i.e., to eventually initiate new IETF
work). It encourages the organizers of bar BOFs to consider the
benefits of holding such get-togethers in much less formal settings.
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. This document may not be modified,
and derivative works of it may not be created, and it may not be
published except as an Internet-Draft.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
Drafts.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.
The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
This Internet-Draft will expire on September 26, 2010.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
Eggert Expires September 26, 2010 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft Successful Bar BOF Sessions March 2010
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the BSD License.
1. Introduction
A typical IETF meeting is full of sessions of different kinds; bar
BOF ("birds of a feather") sessions being one such kind. [RFC4677]
characterizes a bar BOF as
"(...) an unofficial get-together, usually in the late evening,
during which a lot of work gets done over drinks. Bar BOFs spring
up in many different places around an IETF meeting, such as
restaurants, coffee shops, and (if we are so lucky) pools."
During recent IETF meetings, bar BOFs have increasingly become
indistinguishable from official IETF BOFs or sometimes even IETF
working group meetings. This is especially true for bar BOFs that
are held to encourage new IETF work on a specific topic. The
symptoms of this trend are bar BOFs that are held in regular IETF
meeting rooms with classroom-style seating, agendas with lengthy
slide presentations, use of microphone lines, and even formal
consensus calls. And, perhaps most importantly, a distinct lack of
drinks.
This document argues that this recent trend is not helpful in
reaching the ultimate goal of many of these bar BOFs (i.e., to
eventually initiate new IETF work). It encourages the organizers of
bar BOFs to consider the benefits of holding such get-togethers in
much less formal settings.
2. How to Invite
A good rule of thumb is that a bar BOF should include the necessary
participants to achieve its purpose, and no more. Smaller meetings
are usually more successful than larger meetings.
Hence, it is often useful to limit attendance carefully.
Broadcasting a bar BOF announcement is therefore not usually a good
method of inviting the desired set of participants.
Eggert Expires September 26, 2010 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft Successful Bar BOF Sessions March 2010
One reason is that if the announcement happens to attract a large
response, the logistics of organizing a get-together for larger
groups becomes very difficult. Small groups fit comfortably around a
table at a bar or a restaurant, or can find a quite corner in an IETF
hallway for a discussion. Larger groups require dedicated meeting
facilities, which are limited during IETF meetings, and they
generally require much more careful planning.
A second reason for limiting attendance is group interactions.
Experience shows that discussions among groups of more than, say, a
dozen folks tend to start requiring explicit moderation, especially
when the participants are unfamiliar with one another. This adds
cumbersome overheads that lengthen the duration of the session,
making it consume more of the most valuable commodity of many IETF
attendees - time.
Often, it is not even possible for the organizers to determine how
large the resulting get-together will be, forcing them to over-
provision for the "best" case of a substantial attendance, even in
cases where this turns out to be not necessary. And even when a
large group comes together, it oftentimes mostly consists of
"tourists" who do not usefully participate in the get-together but do
require finding larger rooms and whose attendance can make the
interactions for active participants more cumbersome, e.g., because
microphones need to be used in larger rooms.
Even bar BOFs that intend to drum up interest in new IETF work can
benefit from controlling attendance. In their initial stages, these
efforts benefit tremendously from direct, high-bandwidth feedback
from IETF participants experienced in related areas, which is easier
to receive and discuss in a smaller setting. Secondly, a badly run
large meeting can sometimes "poison the waters" for a while for the
proposed idea by convincing the broader community that it should not
progress, where a smaller, more concentrated meeting may have been
productive.
3. Where to Meet
As the name "bar BOF" implies, such get-togethers were traditionally
held in bars or restaurants. Recently, there has been a distinct
shift towards holding such meetings in regular IETF meeting rooms.
One reason for this trend has been discussed in Section 2; namely,
that an uncontrolled broadcast announcement requires over-
provisioning of facilities.
A likely second reason for this trend is that the booking of an IETF
Eggert Expires September 26, 2010 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft Successful Bar BOF Sessions March 2010
room requires Area Director approval. This approval of the room
request has been known to sometimes be reported as Area Director
"support" for the topic of the meeting to the community or to
employers. No such support is expressed or implied when Area
Directors approve room requests; many routinely say "yes" to every
incoming request as long as there are meeting rooms available.
Holding bar BOFs in IETF meeting rooms does not make them any more
official or valid than bar BOFs that happen in other places. And
IETF meeting rooms often do not provide the most supportive
environments for a successful bar BOF.
One reason is that the classroom-style seating often present in IETF
meeting rooms tends to spread people out in rows, all facing towards
a front presenter: good for presentations, bad for discussion.
Because IETF meeting rooms tend to be large, and people have a
natural tendency to spread out, holding a meeting there often
requires microphone use, which is cumbersome and slows a discussion
down.
Another reason is more pragmatic. Because the organizers of bar BOFs
can only use IETF meeting rooms during times when they are not
otherwise in use, bar BOFs often happen during lunch slots, dinner
time, or later in the evening. This prolongs the time during which
IETF participants are stuck in the same rooms they're stuck in for
the rest of the day, and it prevents them from having a regular and
at least somewhat relaxed meal. Anecdotal evidence exists that at
least one Area Director has not been able to set foot outside the
IETF hotel for a stretch of several days during IETF-77. It is
unlikely that bar BOF participants in the consequential mental and
bodily state will make productive contributions to a bar BOF or, in
the case of Area Directors, will be extremely receptive towards new
work proposals.
Food, drink and a relaxed atmosphere in which to have a discussion
are an essential part of a successful bar BOF. IETF meeting rooms
offer neither.
4. How to Meet
Several of the recent bar BOFs that were held in IETF meeting rooms
emulated official IETF meetings to a degree that made them
indistinguishable from a regular working group meeting for the
average IETF attendee. This includes detailed agendas, lengthy
presentations, organizers who refer to themselves as "bar BOF
chairs", emulating blue sheets, and even hums and other consensus
calls.
Eggert Expires September 26, 2010 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft Successful Bar BOF Sessions March 2010
It is not clear as to why this has been happening. One attempt at an
explanation may be that holding a get-together in an IETF room and
having the organizers behave like chairs behave during regular IETF
sessions is causing a Pavlovian stimulus in the bar BOF attendees.
Another explanation attempt is that an IETF meeting room simply
doesn't allow many other forms of discussion.
Whatever the reason for this development is, it is reasonably obvious
that running a bar BOF in a way that emulates running a working group
session is not very productive. Because the reasons for organizing
such a get-together are diverse, this section is not making more
specific suggestions, other than to note that meeting outside of a
IETF meeting room is likely going to shift the dynamics sufficiently
so that better interactions and results become possible.
5. Conclusions
Bar BOF organizers are encouraged to rekindle the original spirit
behind bar BOFs and organize them outside IETF meeting rooms, at
venues with food and drink, for smaller groups and in a way that does
not needlessly mimic the way official IETF sessions are conducted.
6. IANA Considerations
This document raises no IANA considerations.
[Note to the RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon
publication.]
7. Security Considerations
This document has no known security implications.
[Note to the RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon
publication.]
8. Acknowledgments
The name and title of this document have been chosen to resemble
those used by Thomas Narten for his guidelines document on holding a
successful BOF [RFC5434], as a sign of appreciation for a document
that has proven to be invaluable many times over.
Lars Eggert is partly funded by [TRILOGY], a research project
Eggert Expires September 26, 2010 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft Successful Bar BOF Sessions March 2010
supported by the European Commission under its Seventh Framework
Program.
9. Informative References
[RFC4677] Hoffman, P. and S. Harris, "The Tao of IETF - A Novice's
Guide to the Internet Engineering Task Force", RFC 4677,
September 2006.
[RFC5434] Narten, T., "Considerations for Having a Successful Birds-
of-a-Feather (BOF) Session", RFC 5434, February 2009.
[TRILOGY] "Trilogy Project", http://www.trilogy-project.org/.
Author's Address
Lars Eggert
Nokia Research Center
P.O. Box 407
Nokia Group 00045
Finland
Phone: +358 50 48 24461
Email: lars.eggert@nokia.com
URI: http://people.nokia.net/~lars/
Eggert Expires September 26, 2010 [Page 6]
