There have been some discussions about having a meeting at IETF 98 to discuss existing experimental tools and encourage discussion among those working on tools to handle specific issues. The basic meeting description is
Tools are a critical mechanism through which IETF work can be done with less effort. Some IETF tools (e.g. datatracker, xml2rfc, etc.) are at a high level of maturity and deployment. Many other tools have either not yet reached a maturity suitable for wide-spread use or struggle to spread knowledge of their existence and use. Still other potential tools are merely partially brainstormed ideas looking for others motivated to discuss, implement and try. This meeting provides a mechanism to spread knowledge of experimental tools to those interested and get feedback on those tools. It also provides time and focus for finding others interested in particular tool ideas and discussing how to progress them. It should be augmented before IETF 98 with a wiki of experimental tool pointers and tool ideas.
Agenda: 30 minutes of new tools lightning talks
60 minutes of small group discussion on different tool areas
If you would be interested in doing a lightning talk for a tool which hasn't gained IETF-wide use, please let us know in the next week.
If you would be interested in facilitating discussion for a particular tool area, please let us know in the next week. If you are interested in suggesting a tool area for discussion and want to be involved in that, please let us know.
Once we understand what the interest level is in active participation, then we can figure out how is best to organize this.
Thanks,
Alia Atlas & Robert Sparks