Web Elucidation of Internet-Related Developments (weird) Chair: Christopher Burke User Services Area Director(s): April Marine General Discussion:ietf-weird@imc.org To Subscribe: ietf-weird-request@imc.org In Body: subscribe Archive: http://www.imc.org/ietf-weird/ Chair for this session: April Marine Minutes: Walt Houser Chris Burke contacted April to say that he would be unable to make the meeting. April proposed a one-line agenda: To Be or Not to Be. It was accepted. Susan Harris and Walt Houser had attended before. The other two participants were new to the WG. WEIRD was always an experimental group. What is the scope of the group? It is intended to explain the IETF to the general public and those who are considering coming to the IETF for the first time. Should it alert IETFers to the status of major developments? This would be a difficult task that in some measure duplicates the role of the trade press. It also requires considerable effort from knowledgeable authors. For example, instant messaging is a hot topic that WEIRD could summarize. IM got wedged and split into three groups. The situation is highly volatile. Before putting a discussion of this sensitive situation on the IETF web pages, we would need to consult with the involved parties. The scope is potentially the entire IETF and its activities. Those new to the IETF don’t tend to read RFCs, but they will read web pages. Should we do a use-case analysis to get a better understanding of the possible audiences for WEIRD web pages? Should we review the emails from the public? Finally, should we continue or not? We have an audience and a medium, but not content. Should we have a standing WG to cover IETF activities? Firms and organizations are willing to send people to produce standards and protocols in order to make or buy products. But they are less likely to pay for online news summaries. Other WEIRD like activities we could pursue: · IETF FAQ? · Funny RFCs. · BOF Overviews. · Help mail list to answer general questions about the IETF. We concluded we could put this work into USWG, as WEIRD does not have the momentum. We reached the consensus that WEIRD should be shut down.