Re: [ripe-list] RIPE80, RIPE81

2020-05-15 Thread Franziska Lichtblau
[speaking with my personat hat, not he PC chair hat] 

It's good to start that discussion. 

On Fri, 2020-05-15 at 08:41 +0200, Gordon Lennox wrote:
> RIPE80 was a success. Just look at the numbers. So well done
> everybody! Amazing job.

Yes, indeed I'm so happy on how that meeting worked out - even in sort
of keeping the meeting spirit a little bit. 

[...]
> I am of course looking forward to our next on-site meeting. Like many
> other people? 

I think, what this online meeting taught me, is the importance of
physical meetings. I've seen that in other online based communities
that once people start to actually physically meet it changes a lot to
he better. And as much as I enjoyed how RIPE80 turned out, it's not
even remotely a replacement for the "real" thing. But I undestand, that
this discussion is about additional online meetings.

> But I would expect virtual meetings to now be part of the normal mix.
> At least one every other year? If not more?

On the other hand, I must say that the three day online version
exhausted me almost as much as a physical meeting usualy does. I admit,
that might be due to the "first time" excitement. So we need to be
careful if we think along the lines "well, if we do not need to travel
we can just have an additional online meeting". This was a part of the
reason why the desicion on a shortened meeting with a very focused
schedule was made - people exhaust in front of their screens. Plus
there is still the fact that even while we can say "I'm attending the
virtual RIPE meeting" our life around us continues, people will walk
in, call us up and we lack the distance of the actual conference venue.
Additionally, this online event was (at least in my view) partly driven
by the energy of people missing the physical meeting due to the current
situation, so I'm not sure if that energy level would continue, but
that could be worth a try.

Thinking about it, I like the idea the DNSWG is trying, i.e. having
regular meetings for a small focused group of interested people. This
lacks the feeling of "all of us at the RIPE meeting right now", but it
might conserve some ressources while still achieving something good. 

But then I'm not fully decided - I think once the feedback for RIPE80
has been evaluated we should incoorporate that into the discussion. 

Cheers,
Franziska 




Re: [ripe-list] RIPE80, RIPE81

2020-05-15 Thread Christoph Berkemeier
Hi,
On 15.05.20 08:41, Gordon Lennox wrote:
> RIPE80 was a success. Just look at the numbers. So well done everybody! 
> Amazing job.
> 
> So what next? 
> 
> As has been said, and indeed it is obvious, it is too early to make decisions 
> about RIPE81 or even Milan. But I think we can be fairly relaxed about going 
> virtual again for RIPE81 if we have to do so.
> 
> But then what?
> 
> Apparently there were once four RIPE meetings in the same year! But for a 
> number of years we had three meetings each year, most of them in Amsterdam. 
> Then we moved to two meetings, with many being away from Amsterdam. And of 
> course in parallel the ease and scale of on-line participations has improved.
> 
> It is interesting though to look at the on-site participation. It has varied 
> markedly not only in terms of overall numbers but also in the mix. There is a 
> fair amount of churn in there. And I am now also sensitive to the idea that 
> low density travel will mean more expensive travel.
> 
> I am of course looking forward to our next on-site meeting. Like many other 
> people? 
> 
> But I would expect virtual meetings to now be part of the normal mix. At 
> least one every other year? If not more?
> 

I agree that the RIPE meeting was a very well organized conference and
attending it was great fun. Thank you to everyone, who made it possible.
I would like to have something like this more often, but I thinks this
not reasonable.
On the one hand it was good to see, that the transition into cyberspace
was so smooth and I want to keep the ability. On the other hand just
because the conference was virtual, it does not mean it was not a lot of
work. I assume programme committee, working group chairs, RIPE staff and
the other group I forgot to mention worked at least as much as for a
physical conference.
Scaling to three conferences would roughly mean 50 percent more work for
this people. Even attendees are constrained how often they could visit
conferences. May something per working group would be more fitting, with
a way to asynchronously catch up.

Kind Regards,
Christoph



Re: [ripe-list] RIPE80, RIPE81

2020-05-15 Thread Daniel Karrenberg

Gordon,

Thank you for starting this.

The virtual meeting was extremely well organised. It could hardly have 
been better. But it is far from the same as meeting in person. I miss 
the applause. I miss the non-verbal interaction. I miss the meetings in 
the hallways and in the bar. Some discussions during this meeting were 
less than optimal due to the lack the moderation of such venues and the 
opportunity to really look each other in the face while discussing. 
Really meeting each other is a big part of keeping community spirit and 
coherence.


I have learnt much much less than I usually do during meetings. Do not 
get me started about how physical distance makes the work of the NomCom 
more difficult. We need regular physical meetings for a plethora of 
reasons.


So we should be careful with steps that give the bean counters 
opportunities to create facts for us.


Daniel




Re: [ripe-list] RIPE80, RIPE81

2020-05-15 Thread Chriztoffer Hansen

Gordon Lennox wrote on 2020-05-15 8:41:
> But I would expect virtual meetings to now be part of the normal mix. At 
> least one every other year? If not more?

Looking at what is mostly considered a very successful RIPE80 Virtual. I
love your idea, Gordon. If moving to e.g. 3 RIPE meetings a year, with
the virtual edition being in short format (compared to the normal 5 days
for the in person meetings). I would love to see in the future, post
corona lockdown.

Cheers,
Chriztoffer



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[ripe-list] RIPE80, RIPE81

2020-05-14 Thread Gordon Lennox
RIPE80 was a success. Just look at the numbers. So well done everybody! Amazing 
job.

So what next? 

As has been said, and indeed it is obvious, it is too early to make decisions 
about RIPE81 or even Milan. But I think we can be fairly relaxed about going 
virtual again for RIPE81 if we have to do so.

But then what?

Apparently there were once four RIPE meetings in the same year! But for a 
number of years we had three meetings each year, most of them in Amsterdam. 
Then we moved to two meetings, with many being away from Amsterdam. And of 
course in parallel the ease and scale of on-line participations has improved.

It is interesting though to look at the on-site participation. It has varied 
markedly not only in terms of overall numbers but also in the mix. There is a 
fair amount of churn in there. And I am now also sensitive to the idea that low 
density travel will mean more expensive travel.

I am of course looking forward to our next on-site meeting. Like many other 
people? 

But I would expect virtual meetings to now be part of the normal mix. At least 
one every other year? If not more?

Gordon