Hi Andy,
At 07:31 08-11-2012, Andrew G. Malis wrote:
There's obviously a subset of the "newcomers" who only attend
because a meeting is local or otherwise convenient to attend, or
come with narrowly focused interests, and never planned to become a regular.
Yes.
Since attendance is largely flat over last few years, obviously
newcomers that become regulars are offset by existing participants
that drop out or cannot make a particular meeting. Drop outs have to
be expected for any number of reasons, such as change in job
function, change in (or loss of) employer, end of a work item of
interest, and so on.
I suggest looking at this differently as it might provide a better
answer to Adrian's comment. Is there any data to explain why
attendance is flat?
I, for one, think we're actually not in a bad place right now, and
would not welcome a return of the 2600-attendee meetings, where
meeting rooms and hallways were filled to overflowing, with no real
commensurate increase in the set of participants doing the work.
I was following this working group which will likely be shut down
because there is not enough participation. There are quite a few
working group which fit that profile. I prefer not to view things as
"actually not in a bad place" as it encourages complacency.
Personally, I like to see messages such as
http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf/current/msg75744.html as it
helps to understand the views which often go unheard.
Regards,
-sm