One document matched: draft-saintandre-chatroom-relay-00.txt

Network Working Group                                     P. Saint-Andre
Internet-Draft                                                      &yet
Intended status: Informational                          October 14, 2014
Expires: April 17, 2015


                The Chatroom Relay Role at IETF Meetings
                   draft-saintandre-chatroom-relay-00

Abstract

   During IETF meetings, individual volunteers often help sessions run
   more smoothly by relaying information back and forth between the
   physical meeting room and an associated textual chatroom.  This
   document provides suggestions for fulfilling the role of a chatroom
   relay.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 17, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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   described in the Simplified BSD License.



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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   3.  Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   4.  Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4

1.  Introduction

   During IETF meetings, individual volunteers often help sessions run
   more smoothly by relaying information back and forth between the
   physical meeting room and an associated textual chatroom.  This
   document provides suggestions for fulfilling the role of a chatroom
   relay.

2.  Terminology

   A chatroom relay is often referred to as a "Jabber scribe".  This
   term is misleading because nothing prevents the IETF from using a
   technology other than Jabber/XMPP [RFC6120] [XEP-0045] for chatrooms,
   and more importantly because volunteers are not expected to scribe
   the complete contents of the meeting into the chatroom (which would
   be a much more onerous task than relaying selected information back
   and forth between the physical room and the chatroom).

3.  Tasks

   Individuals who volunteer for the role of chatroom relay usually
   complete the following tasks:

   o  Relay questions and comments from the chatroom to the physical
      room.

   o  Count the number of chatroom participants who virtually "hum",
      raise their hands, volunteer to provide feedback on documents,
      etc.

   Chatroom relays often complete the following tasks, too:

   o  Relay the names of people speaking in the physical room to the
      chatroom.

   o  Relay the slide numbers or slide names to help chatroom
      participants follow along.



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   o  Provide assistance of various kinds to chatroom participants
      (e.g., asking about the audio delay or reporting technical
      problems in the physical room).

   Although chatroom relays are not expected to scribe the complete
   contents of conversations that happen the physical room to the
   chatroom, they sometimes relay the gist of such conversations,
   especially during ad-hoc discussions for which slides are not
   available.

4.  Suggestions

   Experience has shown that the following behaviors that make it easier
   to act as a chatroom relay:

   o  Seat yourself near the microphone mostly likely to be used for
      discussions in the physical room, so that you can more easily
      capture the names of people who come to the mic.

   o  If the session is large or is expected to be especially active
      (e.g., a controversial BoF), find a buddy who can help you by
      sitting at another mic, taking turns relaying information, etc.

   o  Identify yourself in both the physical room and the chatroom.

   o  Ask chatroom participants to prepend statements they would like
      you to relay with "RELAY" or "MIC" (the former term is less
      ambiguous).

   o  When relaying a question or comment from the chatroom to the
      physical room, say "this is X relaying for Y from the chatroom" so
      that people know you are not speaking for yourself.

   o  If you don't know the name of a person at the microphone, look at
      their name badge, query them directly, or ask in the chatroom
      (usually some of the people in the physical room will also be
      participating in the chatroom).

   o  Lag happens between the time when something is said in the
      physical room and the time when someone provides a response in the
      chatroom, so take this into account when the interaction is time-
      sensitive (e.g., during a hum or a show of hands).

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document requests no actions from the IANA.





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6.  Security Considerations

   Although XMPP multi-user chat rooms [XEP-0045] can be configured to
   lock down nicknames and require registration with the chatroom in
   order to join, at the time of this writing IETF chatrooms are not so
   configured.  This introduces the possibility of social engineering
   attacks on discussions held in IETF chatrooms.  It can be helpful for
   chatroom relays to be aware of this possibility.

7.  References

   [RFC6120]  Saint-Andre, P., "Extensible Messaging and Presence
              Protocol (XMPP): Core", RFC 6120, March 2011.

   [XEP-0045]
              Saint-Andre, P., "Multi-User Chat", XSF XEP 0045, February
              2012.

Author's Address

   Peter Saint-Andre
   &yet

   Email: peter@andyet.com
   URI:   https://andyet.com/


























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