Subject: Re: Last Call: draft-narten-successful-bof (Considerations for Having a Successful BOF) to Informational RFC

From: Dave Crocker <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:28:02 -0800

The IESG wrote:
> The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits
> final comments on this action.  Please send substantive comments to the
> [email-masked] mailing lists by 2008-01-30. 

This document can be a useful bit of assistance for those seeking to start 
formal IETF work.  What I particularly like is that it mixes mundane with 
abstract, in terms of procedural details and philosophy of success.  In other 
words, it applies abstract concepts of success into particular procedural 
recommendations.

The Introduction provides a bulleted list that is taken from "IETF Working 
Group Guidelines and Procedures", RFC 2418.  It should cite the source, if 
only to get new folks used to consulting that more extensive document and by 
citing it early in the document, the RFC's primacy is less likely to be missed 
that with the current end-of-document citation.

Section 2 is the meat of the document and provides a very constructive 
cookbook approach for doing a BOF.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, characterizing the Section 2 content as "ideal" 
makes it too easy for folks to discount the need to follow what is 
recommended.  The title contains enough wiggle room, with the sord 
"considerations".  So I suggest merely changing the terminology of Section 2 
to be "Recommended Steps".  Acknowledging that particular BOFs might need to 
vary the steps taken is a given, especially since the document is seeking 
Informational rather than BCP or Standards track.

I think the document misses one major issue which, in my view, is essential 
for BOFs and working group focus:  Who is expected to use the output of the 
working group and what are they expected to do with it?  This is not about the 
technical details of a solution, but clarity about its expected use.

d/
-- 

   Dave Crocker
   Brandenburg InternetWorking
   bbiw.net

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