On 5/14/19 2:43 PM, Mary B wrote:
So, I totally agree that WGs should not be run as conference sessions are with complete and beautiful presentations. But, I do think it's important to consider our audience. AFAICT, those most against presentations are those for whom English is a native language. We know we have speakers that talk really, really fast. If I, as a native English speaker have problems following them, I can't fathom how others can. And, no I'm not suggesting people read the slides (that's an awful mode of presentation), but having a slide summarizing key points the speaker is trying to make goes a long way IMHO. I am a visual learner and I find pictures/diagrams to be super, super helpful during discussions. So, I do find that helpful for new work. In the WGs I attend, I haven't seen problems with the presentations. Some of us are just not so good at forming a complete understanding of something in an auditory only mode.
I'm a very enthusiastic supporter of people preparing slides in advance of a meeting, and making them available for download and/or remote viewing (ideally both) from the IETF web site. I just don't think it's generally a good idea to spend valuable meeting time going through them slide-by-slide.
IMHO, WG chairs have the authority and ability to suggest someone reduce content in a presentation if they think it won't allow adequate discussion time or it if has too much background material and doesn't focus on key issues.
Yes, they do. But there's a lot of inertia and mindshare around the current way of doing things, which is reinforced not only in IETF but in most of the organizations that people work for. I doubt it serves those organizations well either, but it certainly doesn't work well in the IETF context, most of the time.
If we want to change how we conduct meetings, we need to build community support around a different way - or at least around empowering the chairs to conduct experiments - rather than expecting them to do it on their own initiative. (And if we're going to conduct experiments we should try to capture the results somehow).
Keith
