Subject: Request for IETF65 - Room Configuration

From: Jeffrey Altman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 04:24:54 -0500

As chair of the Kitten Working Group, I have been trying hard to make
the best use of the limited time that the participants have in the
meeting room.  It has been my experience that the hardest part of making
progress on the documents within Kitten is getting everyone to focus on
the work at the same time.   The IETF meetings provides us that time.

I should also point out that many of the participants are unable to
attend the meetings for a wide range of reasons including geography,
financial considerations, and conflicts with other responsibilities.
As such it is crucial that remote participants be provided as much
opportunity as possible to interact with the in room participants
in real time

Given the limited time I strive to ensure that there are as few
interruptions as possible during the meeting.  I require that all
discussion leaders (we don't have presentations) provide an outline
of the work topics and background materials to me in some form that
I can convert to PDF no later than the night before the meeting.
This is for three purposes:

(1) it enables me to proof read the materials to correct typographical
errors and it also allows me to ensure that the discussion will be
focused on what I believe are the most important issues that face to
face communication can benefit from.

(2) it gives me time to reformat the presentation materials to PDF;
upload them to two locations (the IETF proceedings tool and a web
served AFS volume) so that they will be accessible to the remote
participants.

(3) I am able to preload the materials onto a presentation only
laptop that I bring to each meeting.  The use of this dedicated
laptop results in two major benefits:

  (a) there are no interruptions caused by discussion leaders
      swapping their personal laptops onto the video projector.
      this is a frequent problem for many laptops that now have
      display resolutions that far exceed the capabilities of the
      projectors.   Switching to 1024x768 on the fly often leads
      to significant delays as machines need to be reconfigured
      and many times require rebooting.

  (b) It leaves all the participants (including the chair) their
      own laptops for access to the Jabber room and their personal
      notes.

In my group I always have one participant taking minutes and two
participants scribing to Jabber.  We also try extremely hard to
ensure that all discussion takes place on the microphones.  This is
both to allow the remote participants to hear what is going on in
real time but also so that the audio stream recordings can be used
to supplement the minutes during fast paced technical discussions.
The format of the discussions is round table which leads me to my
request.

In order to support the types of high bandwidth discussions and
ensure that those discussions take place on the microphones, it is
crucial that there be an ample number of microphones accessible
to the appropriate participants.   I realize that the hotel a/v
staff places mics in rooms based upon what they feel is required
for those in the room to be able to hear each other.  It must be
made clear to them that we need the mics for other purposes as
well that are just as important.

In the typical small room for 50 people there are usually two columns
of seating.  In Vancouver we often had tables for the first two
rows of participants.  This is a great idea and should be repeated
in Dallas and all future meetings.   It is standard practice at
IETF that the first two rows are reserved for those who have read
the drafts and will be actively participating in the work while
those in the back of the room read their e-mail and prove how open
our meetings are.  In order to facilitate the active participation
of those in the first two rows of seating I would request that one
microphone be provided to each column of seating for use by those
in the first two rows.  It can be either a wireless or a wired
microphone.  It doesn't matter which.  The only requirement is that
the microphone be capable of being passed around those who are seated
in the first two rows of each column.  These mics would be in addition
to the mics that are typically provided:

* one mic for the chair

* one mic for the discussion leader

* one mic for those in the back of the room who wish the queue up
  periodically

In addition, because of all of the recent troubles we have had
with network access in the room and the instability of the Jabber
clients, I would request that at least one room (the one Kitten and
Kerberos are assigned to) be provided a second video projector onto
which the Jabber room of the meeting will be displayed.  This is to
enable all of those in the room the ability to monitor the Jabber
session and observe the real time comments coming from those listening
to the audio stream.

Thanks.

Jeffrey Altman

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From: Thierry Ernst <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 18:37:40 +0900

These are valuables observations.

About presentation material, wouldn't it be possible for the IETF to
provide a laptop equipped with usual presentation tools (i.e not only
PPT, but OpenOffice, etc) in meeting rooms ? Could it be at least done
at the request of the WG chairs at the same time as the slot request ?
[I don't have a PPT licence so even if I bring a second laptop it
wouldn't help much] 

About remote participants, I think a 2nd display to monitor Jabber
sessions would be ia great idea.  There is also need for remote or local
people to quickly find out the necessary information about the Jabber
session -> one click away from the WG session agenda.

Of course, this has some associated costs.
Thierry

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 04:24:54 -0500
Jeffrey Altman <[email-masked]> wrote:

> meeting room.  It has been my experience that the hardest part of
> making progress on the documents within Kitten is getting everyone to
> focus on the work at the same time.   The IETF meetings provides us
> that time.
> 

-- 
Thierry ERNST, PhD
WIDE, Jun Murai Lab., Keio University, Japan
Nautilus6 Chair: http://www.nautilus6.org
Web: http://www.sfc.wide.ad.jp/~ernst/
T:+81-44-580-1600 F:+81-44-580-1437
--

---

From: Brian E Carpenter <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 15:34:12 +0100

I've copied the IAD. Most of this is about cost and precise advance
planning, which is Ray's department.

[Ray, if you want to be added to the WG Chairs list, please let me know.
Practical topics like this often come up here.]

     Brian

---

From: Rohan Mahy <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 08:56:06 -0800

> session and observe the real time comments coming from those listening

How about we just make sure the network actually works?  I think this 
will be far more productive for everyone.

thanks,
-rohan

---

From: Al Morton <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 13:26:36 -0500

At 11:56 AM 11/24/2005, Rohan Mahy wrote:
>>...
>How about we just make sure the network actually works?  I think this will 
>be far more productive for everyone.
>
>thanks,
>-rohan

Yup, fix the real problem first. But each meeting site seems to have
its own set challenges, and they are heroically engaged by volunteers
(at least at the un-sponsored meetings).

1024x768 seems like enough space for a discussion slide window
and a (small/wide) Jabber window, and both should still be visible
in the first two rows of seating. The dedicated laptop is important
to this suggestion, too, and I understand why Jeff has been bringing
an extra one along. Co-chairs can usually manage this when both have
a laptop.

Al