Re: Ad Hoc BOFs

[Ralph Droms <[e-mail]>]

One of the contributors, in my opinion, to the evolution of an "ad hoc meeting in a bar" to "Bar Bof" as Fred defines it has been a series of small actions, intended to facilitate the organization ad hoc meetings, that have had the unintended consequence of increasing the apparent close relationship between a Bar BoF, an IETF meeting and the WG formation process:

Specifically:

* AD attendance at Bar Bofs
  Intention (at least speaking for myself): early awareness
  Unintended consequence: formal invitations and expected attendance
* scheduling unused meeting rooms during IETF meetings, usually
    over lunch or after 
  Intention: avoid the overhead of finding a non-conficting
    space for a meeting
  Unintended consequence: Extra admin overhead for IETF secretariat;
    Bar BoFs look more like formally scheduled IETF events
* conversation about Bar BoF scheduling on IETF mailing lists
  Intention: 
  Unintended consequence: Bar BoFs are widely advertised and many
    of attendees are in listen-only mode
* posting of Bar Bof logistics on an IETF wiki
  Intention: central location for Bar BoF logistics
  Unintended consequence: Bar BoFs look more like formally scheduled
    IETF events

I will confess to describing a problem here without suggesting an associated solution.  It's hard to support banning any one of these actions taken individually.  Taken together, they seem to move us away from ad hoc meetings to an unplanned additional layer of formalism in our process.

- Ralph

On Jul 29, 2010, at 4:00 PM 7/29/10, Fred Baker wrote:

> [...]
> Let me explain what a Bar BOF is, and what it is not. Our formal BOFs are scheduled with an AD, and are generally for formalizing a charter. The assumption is that a prior ad hoc process, usually on a mailing list or via telephone or conferencing systems has happened, and a work item has matured to the point that we have interested people, proto-specifications or at least problem statements, and so on.
> 
> The initiation point of that is often-but-not-always a handful of people talking over a meal or in a bar on a topic, often having convened mere moments before. Sketches might be drawn on napkins, and people that are hungry or thirsty have a waiter/waitress at hand to deal with that. A Bar BOF, as such small gatherings are called, is *not* a full-blown meeting of perhaps hundreds of people placed at a mealtime but in a place that prevents them from eating. It does not require powerpoint, and is not a catered event. It is not ten minutes stolen from some other subject. Key concept: we respect each other and each other's time, and so we meet in a place that has food and drink, and we have an intimate conversation among people who will be interested to carry on some work item. 
> 
> [...]
>