Hi, based on the feedback received on the proposal to move the IETF 112 plenary to the week before the meeting [1], the IESG has decided to go ahead with the experiment. We did receive some feedback indicating that the proposed experiment is problematic in certain ways for some individuals, but feel that actually running the experiment is still appropriate, in order to get data about how it affects the overall community. The IETF 112 plenary will hence already be scheduled on Wednesday, 3 November 2021, in the time slot of 13:30-15:00 UTC, or 14:30-16:00 Madrid time. At notable extremes, this begins at 06:30 in San Francisco and ends at 02:00 in Sydney, with some of the less popular hours over the Pacific. The IESG will evaluate the success of this experiment based on the following criteria after its conclusion, in consultation with the community: * An improvement in survey responses reporting session conflicts compared to previous IETF online meetings * Positive response to a new survey question about subjective satisfaction with the format change * Elimination of a ninth track, and a reduction in formal conflicts in the final agenda compared to previous online meetings * Little or no reduction in plenary attendance (< 15%) compared to other online plenaries in European time zones (i.e., IETFs 108 and 110) * The subjective experience of the IESG and Secretariat in attempting to minimize conflicts during IETF 112 Not all of these metrics must show improvement for the experiment to be considered a success, neither does a regression in any of necessarily indicate failure. The relative weights of these considerations are a subject for IESG the follow-up discussion and community consultation. Lars Eggert IETF Chair (on behalf of the IESG) [1] https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf-announce/z3FZnHmcuxDevC4BkmoY8I89yPk/
