Subject: Experiment: Holding the IETF 112 plenary on Nov 3, 2021

From: IETF Chair <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2021 10:11:57 +0300

Hi,

based on the feedback received on the proposal to move the IETF 112
plenary to the week before the meeting [1], the IESG has decided to go
ahead with the experiment.  We did receive some feedback indicating
that the proposed experiment is problematic in certain ways for some
individuals, but feel that actually running the experiment is still
appropriate, in order to get data about how it affects the overall
community.

The IETF 112 plenary will hence already be scheduled on Wednesday, 3
November 2021, in the time slot of 13:30-15:00 UTC, or 14:30-16:00
Madrid time. At notable extremes, this begins at 06:30 in San Francisco
and ends at 02:00 in Sydney, with some of the less popular hours over
the Pacific.

The IESG will evaluate the success of this experiment based on the
following criteria after its conclusion, in consultation with the
community:

* An improvement in survey responses reporting session conflicts
  compared to previous IETF online meetings

* Positive response to a new survey question about subjective
  satisfaction with the format change

* Elimination of a ninth track, and a reduction in formal conflicts in
  the final agenda compared to previous online meetings

* Little or no reduction in plenary attendance (< 15%) compared to other
  online plenaries in European time zones (i.e., IETFs 108 and 110)

* The subjective experience of the IESG and Secretariat in attempting to
  minimize conflicts during IETF 112

Not all of these metrics must show improvement for the experiment to be
considered a success, neither does a regression in any of necessarily
indicate failure. The relative weights of these considerations are a
subject for IESG the follow-up discussion and community consultation.

Lars Eggert
IETF Chair (on behalf of the IESG)

[1] https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf-announce/z3FZnHmcuxDevC4BkmoY8I89yPk/