Re: Last Call: <draft-resnick-on-consensus-05.txt> (On Consensus and Humming in the IETF) to Informational RFC

["Fred Baker (fred)" <[e-mail]>]

On Oct 7, 2013, at 12:03 PM, Ted Hardie <[e-mail]> wrote:

> Lastly, I think Pete has failed to capture that one reason for using humming or hands is that it is easy for very active participants to dominate a conversation
> but much less easy for them to pretend to be a large group.  Particularly in BoFs, using those methods to indicate the likely breadth of interest is critical.  The same method can be used, with some of the caution Pete recommends, to gauge whether an issue which appears to be contentious based on a mic line is actually a problem.  It can also, in some cases, be a valuable method of reinforcing the resolve a room that has already likely come to a broad agreement.  That does not contravene Pete's point that this should not be used to silence objections, but there are cases where it is important in its own right.

In my working group, that is the principal use of a hum. It is useful when a set of people have made a viewpoint known, and the chairs are trying to see if that represents a general view, or whether a focused minority is speaking.