Subject: Document Action: 'Considerations for Having a Successful "Bar BOF" Side Meeting' to Informational RFC (draft-eggert-successful-bar-bof-09.txt)

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2012 14:13:09 -0700

The IESG has approved the following document:
- 'Considerations for Having a Successful "Bar BOF" Side Meeting'
  (draft-eggert-successful-bar-bof-09.txt) as Informational RFC

This document has been reviewed in the IETF but is not the product of an
IETF Working Group.

The IESG contact person is Russ Housley.

A URL of this Internet Draft is:
http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-eggert-successful-bar-bof/

Technical Summary

  New work is typically brought to the IETF by a group of interested
  individuals.  IETF meetings are a convenient place for such groups to
  gather informally to discuss and develop their ideas.  Such side
  meetings, which are not reflected in the IETF meeting agenda and have
  no official status, are often half-jokingly referred to as "Bar BOF"
  sessions, to acknowledge that some of them may eventually lead to a
  proposal for an official IETF BOF ("birds of a feather" session) on a
  given topic.

  During recent IETF meetings, many such "Bar BOF" gatherings have been
  organized and moderated in ways that made them increasingly
  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 gatherings, i.e., to efficiently
  discuss and develop ideas for new IETF work.  It encourages the
  organizers to consider the benefits of holding them in much less
  formal settings, and to also consider alternative means to develop
  their ideas.  This document also recommends that the community abandon
  the term "Bar BOF" and instead use other terms such "side meeting", in
  order to stress the unofficial nature of these gatherings.

Working Group Summary

  This document is not the product of any IETF WG.

  Issues covered by this document have been widely discussed on the IETF
  mailing list.

Document Quality

  The document was reviewed by Russ Housley for the IESG.

Note to RFC Editor

  Please make three changes:

  First, please remove the extra right parenthesis.

  OLD:
    perhaps most importantly, a distinct lack of drinks.)

  NEW:
    perhaps most importantly, a distinct lack of drinks.

  Second, please reword this paragraph in Section 4:

  OLD:
    Having side meetings mimic working group meetings is also confusing
    to attendees.  There is at least one case where some side meeting
    participants believed that they were attending an actual working
    group meeting, and incorrect press announcements were generated as a
    consequence.  The IESG is usually not amused when mistakes like this
    happen.  When side meetings take place at restaurants or elsewhere
    away from IETF meeting rooms, the chance for confusion is much lower.

NEW:
    Having side meetings mimic working group meetings is also confusing
    to attendees.  In at least one case, some side meeting participants
    believed that they were attending an actual working group meeting,
    and incorrect press announcements were generated.  When side
    meetings take place at restaurants or elsewhere away from IETF
    meeting rooms, the chance for confusion is much lower.

  Third, please move the word "also" in Section 5:

  OLD:
    organizers should consider the value of also holding

  NEW:
    organizers should also consider the value of holding