Re: the old fellowship program, was Wow, we're famous

[Michael Thomas <[e-mail]>]

On 4/15/21 5:22 PM, Keith Moore wrote:
> On 4/15/21 7:45 PM, Michael Thomas wrote:
>
>> Maybe one thing that could be done is to have a set of things that 
>> newbies can do to participate that are likely to be taken very 
>> favorably.
>
> I've found that newcomers are much more likely to be taken favorably 
> if they're well-prepared.

Well, the nature of a newcomer is that they *won't* be well prepared. 
It's sort of the nature of the beast.

Another thing that occurs to me is that newcomers could be of help with 
things like ascii art. They are immensely helpful for documents but a 
pain for authors. Even better: if it's taken from the words written it, 
it shows how clear those words are and especially how hard it was for 
them to suss it out.

> Maybe IETF meetings should have multiple sessions for each established 
> WG - the first one a "catch up" session that presents and explains the 
> work done to date, at which no decisions will be taken and which is 
> optional for experienced attendees.
>
Yes, that's another obstacle: it can be embarrassing if you're bringing 
up ancient arguments. Some wg chairs I've seen have very short fuses on 
such things and it sends a pretty clear signal that you aren't welcome. 
Telling people to read the wg archives is really telling them to go 
away. If you want to attract new people, a little forbearance goes a 
long way.

Mike