Re: mic lines not working as well as they used to...

[Toerless Eckert <[e-mail]>]

This time around i had a case where i was patiently waiting on the microphone
line in a WG room for probably 10 minutes and then was simply asked by the remote
chair to step away because i had forgotten to put myself into the virtual queue.

In that chairs defense, i do not know if he could see the physical microphone line
in the room or not, but the delegate in the room also just did not say anthing,
so i could not participate in the discussion. I have seen this situation being
handled a lot more friendly in other WGs though. So there is definitely a
lot of freedom today already for WG chairs to either be sticklers to the rules
or to foster a collegial discussion atmosphere. My compromise as a WG chair
is to allow each person on the local microphone ONCE in a meeting to have missed
getting into the virtual line for example.

With that and similar experiences, i'd say its certainly an issue we struggle with.

I am very much a fan of the virtual queue given how i too never
understand peoples names when being mumbled at the microphone. Alas i do not
find the meetecho lite to be particularily easy to use tool on the mobile phone.

An actual app might help to avoid having to click through ietf web pages and typing
in login information repeatedly to use meetecho lite. At least that's what troubles
me with the phone option currently.

An nfc reader attached to the microphone in the room line would even be better.
You just pass by with whatever registered NFC you have, then you see your name
pop up on the room screen and e voila. Could have the NFC on your badge
holder. Good reason to re-use badge-holders across IETFs and avoid the waste.

Cheers
    Toerless

On Wed, Nov 23, 2022 at 03:02:27PM +0000, Stephen Farrell wrote:
> 
> Hiya,
> 
> I think we're making a bit of a mistake in requiring people
> who are in the room at meetings to join the meetecho queue
> before they join the physical mic line. It's not an end of
> the world thing, but I think it is a bit damaging.
> 
> The results of what we've done this year seem to me to be
> that:
> 
> - fewer people join mic lines overall
> - there's almost no real discussion of topics raised
>   at the mic as there used be
> 
> I realise that being fair to remote participants needs to
> be a hard requirement, but I think we've gone a bit too far
> and ought back off some, e.g. to where we encourage but
> don't require people (whether remote or in-person) to join
> the meetecho queue. I think we ought also encourage more
> discussion at the mic (for both remote and in-person folks)
> and not be so fixated on the order in which people appeared
> in the meetecho queue. That requires a bit more chairing
> but that's why we're supposedly at the front of the room.
> 
> But, maybe others like the current rigid setup or haven't
> found the lack of mic-line discussion a problem?
> 
> Cheers,
> S.