|
On 12/02/2012 01:46 PM, joel jaeggli
wrote:
We have non-native english speakers and remote participants both working at a disadvantage to follow the discussion in the room. We should make it harder for them by removing the pretext that the discussion is structured around material that they can review and follow along on? I don't think that's even remotely helpful. In general, the purpose of those meetings is discussion, not presentation. I'm all for exploring better ways to facilitate discussion among the diversity of IETF meeting attendees. But our experience with use of previously-prepared PowerPoint presentations to facilitate discussion shows that use of that tool, in that way and for that purpose, is a miserable failure. Of course I'd encourage speakers to make available for download summaries of the material to be discussed in advance of the meeting, for the benefit of non-native English speakers and others. PowerPoint (or better, PDF of material prepared in PowerPoint) seems like a reasonable format for that. I also think it would be quite helpful to arrange for the topics discussed and points raised in the discussion to be displayed in the room in real time, as they are typed. This would provide non-native speakers with visuals similar to what they see now with PowerPoint, but without the undesirable side-effect of coercing discussion time into presentations. This would also reinforce the need for a minute-taker and help to keep the minute-takers honest. (I doubt that PowerPoint is the best tool for this purpose, since it would be highly desirable to convey the same information, at the same time, to remote participants.) Keith |