Re: [77attendees] Ad hoc meetings (Was: Re: Bar BoF: ip traceback)

[Melinda Shore <[e-mail]>]

On Mar 30, 2010, at 4:17 PM, Marshall Eubanks wrote:
> 'any statement made within the context of an IETF activity is  
> considered an "IETF Contribution".'

I think this is pushing the definition a bit and leaves
the organization open to DOS attacks from nutters.  If
Paul and I are chatting informally in the hallway at an
IETF meeting, it's happening within the context of an
IETF activity but certainly not an IETF contribution.
If someone organizes a hallway chat with a bunch of
people and they end up in an empty meeting room, I really
don't think that's an IETF contribution.  It's not an
IETF contribution until it becomes, you know, a
*contribution* and not just conversation.  I agree that
the line is fuzzy but I don't think it's *that* fuzzy.

And I think we're not in accord on the AD thing.  A
bar bof needn't involve an AD.  I'm beginning to think we
should ask them to stay far, far away.  *Far* away.

> If you want a deeper reason, the IETF has rules for a reason and it  
> is important that those rules cannot be evaded by, e.g., taking the  
> activity off-site and having it in a restaurant.

A design team is operating within the guidelines provided
by a working group and is an IETF activity.  A bunch of
people getting together and hammering out ideas about something
that might perhaps someday become an IETF activity?  That
doesn't seem as obvious to me as I guess it seems to you.

Melinda