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Checking references for intended status: Informational ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No issues found here. Summary: 0 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 1 warning (==), 1 comment (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Network Working Group P. Hoffman 3 Internet-Draft VPN Consortium 4 Intended status: Informational August 16, 2012 5 Expires: February 17, 2013 7 Requirements for Remote Participation Services for the IETF 8 draft-ietf-genarea-rps-reqs-06 10 Abstract 12 The IETF has provided some tools for remote participation in its 13 activities for many years, and some IETF participants have also used 14 their own tools when they felt the need arise. The IETF now wishes 15 to support enhanced remote participation that is as seamless as 16 possible, improving the experience for the remote attendee at the 17 IETF regular meetings and interim meetings without degrading the 18 experience for the people that are physically present. Before 19 deploying the new tools and services needed for this enhanced remote 20 participation, the requirements for such tools and services, and the 21 impacts they will make on the current procedures and infrastructure, 22 must be defined. This document is meant to be that definition. 24 Status of this Memo 26 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 27 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 29 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 30 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute 31 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- 32 Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 34 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 35 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 36 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 37 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 39 This Internet-Draft will expire on February 17, 2013. 41 Copyright Notice 43 Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 44 document authors. All rights reserved. 46 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 47 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents 48 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of 49 publication of this document. Please review these documents 50 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect 51 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must 52 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of 53 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as 54 described in the Simplified BSD License. 56 Table of Contents 58 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 59 1.1. Goals for an Improved RPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 60 1.2. About This Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 61 2. Requirements for Supporting Remote Participation in 62 Regular IETF Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 63 2.1. Registration for Remote Participation . . . . . . . . . . 8 64 2.2. Instant Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 65 2.3. Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 66 2.3.1. Audio to Remote Attendees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 67 2.3.2. IM-to-Mic Relay of Comments from Remote Attendees . . 10 68 2.3.3. Audio for Presentations from Remote Attendees . . . . 11 69 2.3.4. Audio from Remote Attendees to the Room for 70 Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 71 2.4. Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 72 2.4.1. Video from the Room to Remote Attendees . . . . . . . 13 73 2.4.2. Video from Remote Attendees to the Room . . . . . . . 14 74 2.5. Slide Presentations and Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . 14 75 2.6. Shared Text Document Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 76 2.7. Archiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 77 2.8. Polling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 78 2.9. Plenaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 79 2.10. Use by IETF Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 80 2.11. Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 81 2.11.1. Preparation for WG Chairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 82 2.11.2. Preparation for Remote Attendees . . . . . . . . . . . 18 83 3. Requirements for Supporting Remote Participation in 84 Interim Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 85 4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 86 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 87 6. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 88 7. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 89 Appendix A. Background on IETF Remote Participation . . . . . . . 21 90 A.1. How the IETF Meets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 91 A.2. Technologies Currently Used at Regular IETF Meetings . . . 23 92 A.3. Locating the Meeting Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 93 A.3.1. Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 94 A.3.2. Instant Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 95 A.3.3. Slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 96 A.4. Remote Participation at IETF Meetings . . . . . . . . . . 25 97 A.4.1. Remotely Speaking at the Mic . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 98 A.4.2. Remotely Presenting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 99 A.4.3. Floor Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 100 A.5. Remote Participation at IETF Interim WG Meetings . . . . . 29 101 A.5.1. Face-to-Face Interim Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 102 A.5.2. Virtual Interim Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 103 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 105 1. Introduction 107 There are two types of participants at the three-times-a-year IETF 108 meetings: the people who are physically at the meeting ("local 109 attendees") and people that are not physically at the meeting but are 110 following the meeting online ("remote attendees"). For more than a 111 decade, the IETF has tried to make it easier for remote attendees to 112 participate in its face-to-face meetings in a meaningful fashion by 113 employing various tools. 115 At the same time, many IETF Working Groups (WGs) have started to have 116 interim meetings that are scheduled between the regular IETF 117 meetings; these are briefly described in [RFC2418]. Some of these 118 interim meetings are face-to-face meetings with remote attendees, 119 while other interim meetings only take place over the Internet or on 120 the phone; the latter type of meeting is often called a "virtual 121 interim". There are also interim meetings that do not support remote 122 participation. 124 The IETF's current remote participation system ("RPS") for the 125 official three-times-a-year meetings ("regular IETF meetings") 126 consists of a real-time audio stream carried to remote attendees over 127 HTTP, textual instant messaging (IM) carried over Jabber, and slides 128 distributed on the IETF web site. Two tools that are experimentally 129 supported, WebEx and Meetecho, are used to sync the audio and slides 130 during the meeting, and also replay them in the proceedings. Some 131 WGs also employ ad-hoc tools such as Skype. For interim WG meetings, 132 the IETF provides access to WebEx. The IETF's leadership regularly 133 uses telephone, Jabber, and WebEx for the many meetings that happen 134 between the IETF meetings. Many meetings use a mixture of tools, 135 with each tool providing only part of the overall desired 136 functionality. A more detailed description of the current IETF RPS 137 can be found in Appendix A. 139 1.1. Goals for an Improved RPS 141 The IETF wants to improve the tools provided in the RPS for many 142 reasons. 144 o A better RPS would allow current remote IETF attendees to 145 participate in regular IETF meetings more effectively, and would 146 also allow more people to become remote IETF attendees. This in 147 turn would hopefully lead to better WG outcomes. There are many 148 people who are active in many WGs who rarely or never come to IETF 149 meetings; good RPS tools could allow some of these people to 150 contribute better during meetings. 152 o The improved RPS tools would also be used outside IETF meetings. 153 They would be available to WGs for interim meetings, both to allow 154 remote participation in face-to-face interims as well as to 155 facilitate virtual interims where none of the attendees are in the 156 same location. 158 o The plenary sessions of IETF meetings currently only allow remote 159 attendees to hear the speakers and read a real-time transcript. 160 Improved RPS tools would allow remote attendees to see the 161 speakers, to see the slides synchronized with the audio, and be 162 able to comment at the mics like people in the room. 164 o The IETF leadership (the IAB, IESG, IAOC, and probably others) 165 could use the new tools to help make their own meetings more 166 effective. 168 o There is a desire to better capture the contributions to the IETF 169 (as defined in [BCP78]) of remote attendees in the official record 170 of regular IETF and interim meetings. 172 The are many IETF-related activities that can be aided by remote 173 participation tools. The scenarios in which the RPS described in 174 this document is expected to be used are WG sessions at regular IETF 175 meetings, plenaries at regular IETF meetings, AD-sponsored lunch 176 meetings at regular IETF meetings, face-to-face interim WG meetings, 177 and IETF leadership meetings. 179 1.2. About This Document 181 The purpose of this document is to develop the requirements for the 182 IETF's RPS that enables enhanced remote participation in meeting 183 sessions. The RPS described in this document might augment and/or 184 replace the current set of IETF RPS tools. The intention is to 185 improve as much as possible of the experience of remote attendees in 186 meetings while not having a significant negative effect on the 187 experiences of local attendees and WG chairs. 189 This document specifies a set of requirements based on the community 190 desires at the time that this document is written. It is expected 191 that the desires of the community will shift after the RPS described 192 here is deployed and as remote participation tools evolve. The 193 requirements here are for the RPS to be deployed in the near term; 194 later, as the requirements change, additions and changes will 195 certainly be made to the RPS. This document is definitely not meant 196 to limit experimentation with participation ideas after deployment of 197 the RPS described here. 199 This document differentiates between requirements that have higher 200 and lower priorities. Higher-priority requirements are intended to 201 be delivered as soon as possible, but lower-priority requirements 202 might be delivered later. For example, a high-priority requirement 203 might be "remote attendees must be able to know which slide is being 204 discussed" and a related, lower-priority requirement might be "remote 205 attendees must be able to see the speaker pointing to the slide with 206 a laser pointer". The eventual tools will be rolled out based on the 207 priorities, making it likely that the community will learn more about 208 additional requirements for lower priority items before they are 209 deployed. 211 Note that some of the requirements in this document for particular 212 functionality may not be desired by all WG chairs. Different WG 213 chairs prefer to use different tools, and that will be true when the 214 additional tools described in this document are deployed. The use of 215 some tools is currently required by the IETF procedures, such as the 216 audio recordings that are put in the proceedings. This document does 217 not mandate the use of any particular tool by a WG, but such a 218 requirement might be made by others, such as an Area Director 219 requiring the use of a particular tool by one or more WGs in their 220 area. 222 This document is being produced at the request of the IAOC. The 223 request for proposals that led to this document can be found at 224 [RPS-RFP]. This document does not specify specific technologies or 225 instantiations of tools. Instead, it is meant to be used as a guide 226 for the IAOC to later contract the development and deployment of the 227 tools described here. It is expected that the IAOC will consider 228 changes and additions to the RPS periodically after the RPS described 229 here is deployed. 231 Requirements in this document are numbered, such as "**Requirement 232 06-00**". 234 The requirements covered in this document apply almost exclusively to 235 tools and services that are used for remote participation in real- 236 time meetings. The document does not cover the many other tools used 237 by WGs for non-real-time communication such as mailing lists, issue 238 trackers, document flow control systems, and so on. Many of the non- 239 real-time tools are also being improved over time, but they are not 240 the subject of this document. 242 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 243 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 244 document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. 246 This document is being discussed on the vmeet@ietf.org mailing list. 247 See for more 248 information. 250 2. Requirements for Supporting Remote Participation in Regular IETF 251 Meetings 253 This section covers the requirements for effective remote 254 participation in meetings where most members are in regular IETF 255 face-to-face meetings. Some of the requirements in this section 256 overlap with those in Section 3, but many are unique to meetings that 257 have a large number of attendees physically present. 259 **Requirement 06-01**: The specifications in the RPS SHOULD rely upon 260 IETF and other open standards for all communications and interactions 261 wherever possible. The RPS might not rely on IETF or other open 262 standards if there is an identified gap that cannot be met by those 263 standards. 265 **Requirement 06-02**: All tools in the RPS MUST be able to use both 266 IPv4 and IPv6 addresses natively. 268 **Requirement 06-03**: All tools in the RPS SHOULD be able to be run 269 on the widest possible array of computers. The tools may be stand- 270 alone applications, may be run from a modern web browser, or from the 271 command line. The highest priority is that the tool need to be 272 available on all of (at least) MacOS version 10.6 or later, Windows 7 273 or later, and any common Linux distribution produced in 2010 or 274 later. A lower priority is that the tools be able to run on IOS and 275 Android platforms. The tools MUST NOT rely on Adobe Flash to work 276 correctly. 278 **Requirement 06-04**: Audio, video, instant messaging, and slide 279 streams going to and from remote attendees SHOULD be delivered in as 280 close to real-time as is practically possible. The system MUST 281 minimize internal latency, should avoid unnecessary architectural 282 latency, and be designed with a goal of having less than 200 283 milliseconds of delay to registered remote attendees who are on fast 284 Internet connections. A common complaint with the current RPS is 285 that the streaming audio can take more than 10 seconds (and sometimes 286 as much as 30 seconds) to reach the remote attendee. This causes 287 many of the problems listed in Appendix A.4.1. 289 **Requirement 06-05**: The outgoing audio, video, and slide streams 290 MUST by synchronized so the remote attendee does not get confused 291 during slide presentations. 293 **Requirement 06-06**: Many attendees will be in places with limited 294 bandwidth. Remote attendees on 56Kbps Internet connections SHOULD be 295 able to receive useable versions of streaming information. The 296 system SHOULD take advantage of higher bandwidth audio and video 297 encodings for participants on higher bandwidth connections. The 298 system MUST NOT architecturally prevent other users from selecting 299 higher bandwidth encodings. 301 **Requirement 06-07**: Both local and remote attendees SHOULD be able 302 to easily contact a single entity who is available throughout the 303 meeting if they find problems with any of the RPS tools, and to get 304 fairly rapid response. This entity needs to be able to handle as RPS 305 tool problems in the meeting rooms, or be able to quickly contact 306 someone who can address those problems. 308 **Requirement 06-08**: Any tools that are used by remote attendees 309 MUST also be available to local attendees as well. At many IETF 310 meetings, some local attendees act as remote attendees in WG meetings 311 that they are not sitting in, so they can attend two WGs at once. 313 **Requirement 06-09**: The deployment of the tools here MUST take 314 into account making the tools accessible to as many IETF attendees as 315 possible. Such deployment is likely to include technical 316 accommodations for those with visual and hearing disabilities. 318 2.1. Registration for Remote Participation 320 Remote attendees who make contributions to the IETF (as defined in 321 [BCP78]) are bound by the "Note Well" text. By allowing registration 322 before participating remotely, remote attendees can be better alerted 323 to, and thus bound to, the requirements of contributors. This is 324 particularly important because it is easy in the IETF process to 325 change from being an observer to being a contributor. For example, 326 many people who say things in a WG's IM room do not realize that they 327 are bound by the "Note Well" text. 329 **Requirement 06-10**: All remote attendees at regular IETF meetings 330 and interim meetings who make contributions MUST register with the 331 IETF Secretariat before contributing using any of the RPS tools. 333 **Requirement 06-11**: Remote attendees who will only be listening 334 and/or watching, but not making contributions, MUST NOT be required 335 to register. 337 **Requirement 06-12**: The RPS MUST be able to tell which 338 participants are registered and which are not. This is to allow 339 different levels of service to registered users. 341 **Requirement 06-13**: Registration for remote attendees SHOULD be no 342 more onerous than joining a WG mail list. Basically, the registrant 343 should acknowledge the Note Well, prove that they are at the given 344 email address, and receive confirmation that they are registered. 345 The confirmation will also include any passwords needed for the RPS 346 tools. 348 **Requirement 06-14**: The RPS tools (particularly the registration 349 tool) MUST gracefully handle multiple attendees who have the same 350 name. 352 Note that some unregistered remote attendees might expect to be able 353 to participate but be prevented from doing so by the RPS. The IETF 354 page for each meeting (particularly the agenda pages) can make this 355 clearer to help remote attendees plan better for participation. 357 The cost for remote attendees to register, if any, is not covered in 358 this document but will instead be determined by the IETF at a later 359 time. There are many ideas on the subject (tiered costs for 360 different services, no cost at all for the first year, and others), 361 but the effects of different cost structures is beyond the scope of 362 this document. 364 2.2. Instant Messaging 366 Instant messaging (IM) is used both as a remote participation tool 367 and as a communication tool for local attendees at a regular meeting. 368 Although the current tool's Jabber room is a good way to get 369 questions to the mic, it also becomes a second communications channel 370 that only a few people in the room are participating in. The instant 371 messaging system is also useful for remote users to ask about the 372 status of the room ("is anyone there?"). 374 **Requirement 06-15**: The IM system MUST allow anyone to see all 375 messages in the WG's or BoF's room. 377 **Requirement 06-16**: The IM system MUST allow any registered user 378 to post messages in the WG's or BoF's room. 380 **Requirement 06-17**: The date and time that a message appears in an 381 IM stream MUST be retained. IM clients MUST be able to show an 382 indication of the date and time for all messages. Someone coming 383 into a meeting late requires context for which messages in an instant 384 messaging room are recent and which are old. 386 2.3. Audio 388 Audio from face-to-face meetings travels in two directions: from the 389 room to remote attendees, and (potentially) from remote attendees to 390 the room. Comments on early drafts of this document indicated that 391 the latter may not really be a requirement for all attendees if IM- 392 to-mic is made predictable. Given this, reliable IM-to-mic relay for 393 comments to speakers is highest priority, audio from remote attendees 394 giving presentations is a second priority, and audio from remote 395 attendees giving comments to the room is a third priority. 397 2.3.1. Audio to Remote Attendees 399 **Requirement 06-18**: Remote attendees MUST be able to hear what is 400 said by local attendees and chairs at any mic in the meeting. 402 **Requirement 06-19**: Remote attendees SHOULD be able to hear the 403 audio stream over the PSTN. 405 2.3.2. IM-to-Mic Relay of Comments from Remote Attendees 407 As described in Appendix A.4.1, the current tools support an informal 408 method for remote attendees to speak at the mic: in the Jabber room, 409 they enter the string "mic:" before their comment and hope that the 410 designated scribe or someone else goes to the mic to relay the 411 comment. This method works, but the current implementation has 412 significant flaws described in that section. 414 **Requirement 06-20**: The RPS MUST enable relay of messages from IM 415 to the mic to be able to happen as quickly as if the remote attendee 416 was local. 418 **Requirement 06-21**: The person relaying from IM to the mic must be 419 available throughout the WG meeting. To date, this has been done by 420 WG volunteers in the room. In the future, it could be done the same 421 way, or maybe could be facilitated by hiring people to attend 422 meetings for the specific purpose of being IM-to-mic scribes, or 423 maybe could be done with tools that allow copy-and-paste of text from 424 IM to a speech synthesizer that reads it to the room. 426 **Requirement 06-22**: If multiple remote attendees want to comment 427 at the same time, the person relaying from IM to the mic MUST be able 428 to relay for all of them. 430 Note: during the development of this document, there have been many 431 suggestions for how WG chairs can better manage the IM-to-mic 432 relaying (for example, with planned pauses, better tracking of the IM 433 room, and so on). Because these are actually about improving WG 434 chairs, not the RPS tools, they are out of scope for this document. 436 2.3.3. Audio for Presentations from Remote Attendees 438 In order for a remote attendee to be a presenter, their voice needs 439 to be heard in the meeting room. This functionality is different 440 than allowing remote attendees from giving comments (covered in 441 Section 2.3.4) in that the the WG chair needs much less floor control 442 for one speaker than for many. 444 **Requirement 06-23**: A remote attendee giving a presentation MUST 445 be able to have their speaking be heard by all local and remote 446 attendees. 448 **Requirement 06-24**: A WG chair MUST be able to control the sound 449 coming from any particular remote attendee. This control MUST allow 450 reduction in volume, all the way to complete muting, of the remote 451 speaker. 453 **Requirement 06-25**: Audible echo in the audio stream MUST be 454 damped and/or eliminated by the tools. The RPS MUST recognize 455 audible echo and automatically take measures to reduce it to a level 456 which won't distract listeners. 458 **Requirement 06-26**: The audio system used by the RPS MUST be able 459 to integrate with systems commonly used in the venues used for IETF 460 meetings. These venue systems typically include line-level audio 461 outputs from mixers that combine all the mic inputs into a single 462 stream. Some venue systems also allow for headphone level inputs 463 from PCs to be mixed into the audio stream. 465 2.3.4. Audio from Remote Attendees to the Room for Comments 467 Note that the requirements here assume a very large change in the way 468 that remote participation will happen. Instead of a remote attendee 469 typing something into the Jabber room that someone will repeat at a 470 mic in the room, remote attendees will use their own mics to speak to 471 the meeting. Some of the requirements from Section 2.3.3 will apply 472 here as well. 474 Further note that, as per above, audio from remote attendees is a 475 secondary priority. That means that the "MUST" requirements in this 476 section are for when the priority is being met, not for when the RPS 477 is initially rolled out. 479 **Requirement 06-27**: Remote attendees MUST be able to speak 480 directly to a meeting without going through a local attendee, and 481 have their speaking be heard by local attendees. (Note that the 482 ability to speak is controlled by the chair; see Section 2.3.4.1.) 483 **Requirement 06-28**: Local attendees MUST be able to determine 484 which remote attendee is speaking. 486 **Requirement 06-29**: When a remote attendee connects to the audio 487 stream to the room, their mic SHOULD start off muted. This will 488 prevent problems such as those common with WebEx where a remote 489 attendee doesn't realize that they can be heard. 491 **Requirement 06-30**: A lower-priority requirement is for remote 492 attendees to be able to speak to the room by originating from the 493 PSTN. 495 2.3.4.1. Floor Control for Chairs for Audio from Remote Attendees 497 It is not yet clear how the set of remote attendees would be treated 498 for queueing. Some tools have each remote attendee being considered 499 separately, while others pool all remote attendees into one group. 500 This affects the chair knowing and being able to act on the order 501 that remote attendees ask to speak. 503 Note that, if the remote video to room requirements from 504 Section 2.4.2 need to be met, it is very likely that a related 505 requirement to those below is that "the audio and video floor 506 controls must be in the same tool". 508 **Requirement 06-31**: Remote attendees MUST have an easy and 509 standardized way of requesting the attention of the chair when the 510 remote attendee wants to speak. The remote attendee MUST also be 511 able to easily cancel an attention request. 513 **Requirement 06-32**: The RPS MUST allow a remote attendee's request 514 for attention to include an optional short (20 characters or less) 515 arbitrary text string. A remote attendee might want to indicate that 516 they are asking a question of the presenter, or answering a question 517 that someone else asked at the mic, or want to bring up a new topic. 518 It is not acceptable to simply rely on humans reading instant 519 messages to allow remote participants to make the request for 520 attention. 522 **Requirement 06-33**: The floor control portion of the RPS MUST give 523 a remote attendee who is allowed to speak a clear signal when they 524 should and should not speak. 526 **Requirement 06-34**: The chair MUST be able to see all requests 527 from remote attendees to speak at any time during the entire meeting 528 (not just during presentations) in the floor control system. 530 **Requirement 06-35**: The floor control system MUST allow a chair to 531 easily mute all remote attendees. 533 **Requirement 06-36**: The floor control system MUST allow a chair to 534 easily allow all remote attendees to speak without requesting 535 permission; that is, the chair SHOULD be able to easily turn on all 536 remote attendees mics at once. 538 **Requirement 06-37**: The floor control system for the chair MUST be 539 able to be run by at least two users at the same time. It is common 540 for a chair to leave the room, to have a side discussion with an AD, 541 or to become a presenter. They should be able to do so without 542 having to do a handoff of the floor control capability. 544 **Requirement 06-38**: The RPS MUST authenticate users who can use 545 the floor control system in a particular meeting using simple 546 passwords; other forms of authentication may be used as well. 548 **Requirement 06-39**: The IETF Secretariat MUST be able to easily 549 set up the individuals allowed to use the floor control system for a 550 particular meeting and to change the settings at any time, including 551 during the meeting. 553 **Requirement 06-40**: The chair SHOULD be able to monitor the sound 554 levels of the audio being delivered to remote attendees to be sure 555 that they can hear what is going on in the room. 557 2.4. Video 559 The IETF has experimented with one-way and two-way video at some 560 meetings in the past few years. Remote attendees have said that 561 seeing people in the meetings gave them a better understanding of the 562 meeting; at a recent meeting, a remote presenter was able to see the 563 people in line at the mic and was better able to interact with them. 564 The requirements for video from remote attendees to meeting rooms 565 parallel the requirements for audio from remote attendees to meeting 566 rooms. The IETF video may need to integrate with the video systems 567 at some meeting venues. 569 2.4.1. Video from the Room to Remote Attendees 571 **Requirement 06-41**: Remote attendees MUST be able to see the 572 presenter at a meeting. A lower-priority requirement is that remote 573 attendees SHOULD be able to see who is speaking at the mics in the 574 room. 576 **Requirement 06-42**: Remote attendees MUST be able to see local 577 attendees at any mic in the meeting. 579 2.4.2. Video from Remote Attendees to the Room 581 Note that the requirements in this section have the same priorities 582 as for audio for remote presentations (Section 2.3.3) and audio from 583 remote attendees to the room for comments (Section 2.3.4). 585 **Requirement 06-43**: When video is allowed for remote attendees to 586 give presentations (as described in Section 2.3.3), the audience in 587 the room SHOULD be able to see the presenter speaking. 589 **Requirement 06-44**: When video is allowed for remote attendees for 590 comments, the floor management tool for audio (as described in 591 Section 2.3.4.1) MUST also control video as well. 593 **Requirement 06-45**: The RPS MUST have the capability of showing 594 video of the remote attendee who is speaking over the audio to the 595 local attendees. 597 **Requirement 06-46**: A remote attendee who is speaking MUST be able 598 to choose what is shown to local attendees: video of them speaking, a 599 still picture of their face or avatar, or just their name. 601 **Requirement 06-47**: The RPS MUST give a remote attendee a clear 602 indication when their video image or selected image is being shown to 603 the local attendees. 605 2.5. Slide Presentations and Distribution 607 This section discusses slide presentations, which are the primary 608 form of presentations made in WG meetings. It should be noted that 609 are occasionally other types of presentations, such as videos; these 610 are not dealt with in the tools proposed below. 612 **Requirement 06-48**: The RPS MUST be able to handle both PDF and 613 PowerPoint formats (".ppt" and ".pptx") for distributed slides. 615 **Requirement 06-49**: The RPS MUST automatically convert PowerPoint 616 presentations to PDF and make both available for distribution at the 617 same time. 619 **Requirement 06-50**: Presenters MUST be able to update their slides 620 on the IETF site up to just before their presentation, if such update 621 is allowed by the WG chairs. 623 **Requirement 06-51**: Chairs MUST be able to approve or disapprove 624 of any slide submission or updates, with the default being that all 625 submissions are allowed. 627 In many current remote participation systems, slide presentations and 628 the video coming from in-meeting cameras are sent as two separate 629 streams (called the "slide stream" and the "camera stream"). The 630 slide stream is usually much lower bandwidth than the camera stream, 631 so remote attendees with limited bandwidth can choose to watch just 632 the slide stream. Separating the streams allows remote attendees to 633 see the slide stream and the camera streams in separate windows that 634 can be independently sized. 636 **Requirement 06-52**: The RPS MUST transmit the slide stream 637 separately from the camera stream. 639 **Requirement 06-53**: The slide stream MUST represent the slides as 640 they are projected in the room, allowing the presenter to go back and 641 forth, as well as to edit slides in real time. This makes it clear 642 to the remote attendees which set of slides, and which slide number, 643 is being currently shown. 645 **Requirement 06-54**: When remote presentations are supported (see 646 Section 2.3.3), the remote presenter SHOULD be able to control the 647 slides. This is a lower-priority requirement because this could be 648 easily done by a local attendee listening to the remote presenter. 650 2.6. Shared Text Document Editing 652 In some WG meetings, there is an attempt to edit a text document with 653 input from the local attendees. This is typically done for proposed 654 charter changes, but sometimes happens on a WG document or the 655 meeting's agenda. This is usually unsuccessful, given the amount of 656 text and the size of what can be displayed on the screen. In recent 657 meetings, shared text document editing has been used for editing 658 charters and for taking minutes of meetings. 660 An RPS tool for shared text document editing would be equally useful 661 for local and remote attendees watching the edits happen in real- 662 time. There is a good chance that this tool would be watched by 663 local attendees on their laptops instead of being projected on the 664 screen because of the small size of the the text. This, in turn, 665 means that local attendees who aren't using their laptops at the 666 moment would not be able to participate by watching. 668 **Requirement 06-55**: Shared real-time editing of text documents 669 MUST be supported. This system must allow at least three people to 670 have write access and hundreds of people to have read access to any 671 particular document. 673 **Requirement 06-56**: It MUST be easy to start a new text shared 674 document and to import existing text into a shared document. 676 **Requirement 06-57**: Remote attendees MUST be able to be either the 677 writers or the readers of shared documents. 679 **Requirement 06-58**: Those with read access MUST be able to see the 680 edits made by those with write access within less that five seconds 681 after each edit. 683 **Requirement 06-59**: It MUST be easy to change the permissions for 684 who gets write access to a document during an editing session. 686 **Requirement 06-60**: A much-lower priority requirement is the 687 ability for group-editing of graphics. 689 2.7. Archiving 691 Archived recordings of the events of the meetings are valuable for 692 remote attendees who are not able to hear everything in real time. 694 **Requirement 06-61**: The RPS MUST support storage and distribution 695 of recordings of the audio, video, and slide presentations for all WG 696 meetings. 698 **Requirement 06-62**: Transcripts of the instant messaging for all 699 meetings MUST be kept for distribution after IETF meetings. 701 **Requirement 06-63**: The recordings and transcripts SHOULD be made 702 available during the meetings, within a day of them being made. 704 **Requirement 06-64**: Users MUST be able to easily find the archives 705 of the recordings and instant messaging transcripts of a particular 706 WG or BoF session at a particular meeting. 708 **Requirement 06-65**: The RPS SHOULD support indexing of archived 709 audio and video for particular events in meetings such as when 710 speakers change. 712 **Requirement 06-66**: The RPS MUST support recording and storage of 713 recordings of the audio, video, and slide presentations of interim 714 meetings as well as regular IETF meetings. 716 **Requirement 06-67**: Given that interim meetings are often run 717 without the help of the IETF Secretariat, making these recordings 718 MUST be easy for WG chairs. 720 2.8. Polling 722 The common IETF method of assessing support is a straw poll, 723 sometimes managed by audible humming, sometimes by raising hands. 725 **Requirement 06-68**: A system for yes/no/abstain polling meeting 726 attendees, including remote attendees at the same time, MUST be 727 provided. It MUST be easy to set up a simple poll, and it must be 728 easy for all local and remote attendees to find the poll and 729 participate. Note that this would add a requirement that everyone in 730 a meeting be using their computer to participate in the poll. 732 2.9. Plenaries 734 **Requirement 06-69**: Remote attendees SHOULD be able to make 735 comments at the mic approximately as well as if they were local 736 attendees. This means that either remote audio to the plenary room 737 speakers be available, or that IM-to-room relay be available. 739 **Requirement 06-70**: Transmitting real-time transcription of 740 plenary speakers to remote attendees MUST be supported. The lag in 741 transmission MUST be less than five seconds. 743 2.10. Use by IETF Leadership 745 The requirements for bodies like the IESG and IAB to use the RPS 746 during regular IETF meetings are similar to those of most WGs. The 747 main difference is that they need a way to limit who can participate 748 remotely. 750 **Requirement 06-71**: The chair or meeting facilitator MUST be able 751 to easily limit remote access of all tools (both for listening/ 752 observing and contributing) to meetings on a room-by-room basis. 754 **Requirement 06-72**: The IETF Secretariat must be able to limit 755 attendees in restricted meetings using a simple authentication 756 mechanism. 758 Note that the IETF leadership will also heavily use the remote 759 participation tools between IETF meetings in a manner that is very 760 similar to virtual interim meetings. 762 2.11. Preparation 764 Both WG chairs and attendees need to be able to prepare for an IETF 765 meeting and individual WG meetings. The more tools that might be 766 used in a meeting, the more important it is that the chairs and 767 attendees be able to prepare easily. 769 2.11.1. Preparation for WG Chairs 771 **Requirement 06-73**: Sessions MUST NOT be associated with physical 772 rooms until just before session starts. This allows a previous 773 session to run over its time into the break period without 774 inconveniencing remote users or the archives. 776 **Requirement 06-74**: The RPS MUST allow a session to be moved from 777 one room to another during the session This is needed because the 778 Secretariat sometimes need to swap the rooms for WGs when it becomes 779 clear that one is too full and another room has excess space. 781 **Requirement 06-75**: WG chairs MUST be able to test whether or not 782 the tools for their session are working at least 30 minutes before 783 the meeting begins (unless, of course, there is already another 784 meeting occurring in the room during that time). Session testing is 785 done before session is associated with a physical room. 787 **Requirement 06-76**: There MUST be written operational 788 documentation for each RPS tool that is accessible at all times. 789 This will help reduce problems where a WG chair is having problems 790 during a meeting that is affecting the meeting as a whole. 792 **Requirement 06-77**: There SHOULD be training materials for WG 793 chairs in how to use the RPS tools. 795 **Requirement 06-78**: There SHOULD be a tool that allows a WG chair 796 to prepare each tool that will be used in their WG meeting. Such a 797 tool would let the WG chair specify which RPS tools they will use. 799 **Requirement 06-79**: There SHOULD be a custom checklist for each WG 800 that helps the chair prepare for their meeting. The checklist would 801 enumerate the steps needed before the meeting begins, to start the 802 meeting, during the meeting, to close the meeting, and after a 803 meeting. 805 2.11.2. Preparation for Remote Attendees 807 **Requirement 06-80**: Remote attendees MUST be able to easily find 808 all the material they need to effectively participate, including 809 links to audio, video, instant messaging, slides, and so on. This 810 material MUST be available well before the time of the meeting. The 811 page with the meeting material SHOULD allow the remote attendee to 812 easily perform a time conversion to and from the local time at the 813 IETF meeting. 815 **Requirement 06-81**: There MUST be a constantly-running testing 816 service that covers all interactive tools (audio, video, slide 817 display, and so on) for at least a week before the meeting begins. 818 Remote attendees need to be able to test the remote participation 819 setup before a regular meeting, and even during the meeting. 821 **Requirement 06-82**: The testing service MUST run throughout the 822 meeting so that last-minute joiners can test their systems. 824 **Requirement 06-83**: The testing service SHOULD allow remote 825 attendees to also test whether their outgoing audio, video, and slide 826 control works. 828 **Requirement 06-84**: A remote attendee who starts using one or more 829 tools after a meeting has begun MUST be able to tell what is 830 happening in the meeting. In specific, there MUST be an indication 831 if the meeting has not started, if the meeting is happening (even if 832 there is silence on the mics), and if the meeting is over. 834 3. Requirements for Supporting Remote Participation in Interim Meetings 836 One of the goals of this document is to increase the effectiveness of 837 interim meetings. Interim meetings are now uncommon, but might 838 become more common (and more effective) if the remote participation 839 becomes more useful. 841 The requirements for meetings that are all remote (that is, with no 842 local attendees) are mostly a subset of the requirements for remote 843 participation in a regular IETF meetings and face-to-face interim 844 meeting. 846 **Requirement 06-85**: The RPS SHOULD have a central location where 847 the specifics about how remote participation is supported for every 848 WG interim meeting. This will reduce the problems often seen where 849 messages about how to participate in an interim meeting get buried in 850 the WG mailing list. 852 **Requirement 06-86**: There SHOULD be documentation and training for 853 the RPS tools specifically targeted at WG chairs who will lead 854 interim meetings. 856 **Requirement 06-87**: The RPS tools MUST be at least partially 857 usable at face-to-face meetings other than regular IETF meetings. 858 The number of the tools that might be available will be different for 859 different venues for the virtual interims, but at a minimum, the 860 following MUST be supported for remote attendees: 862 o Registration 864 o Room audio 866 o Instant messaging 867 o Slide distribution 869 o Slide presentation 871 o Shared document editing 873 4. IANA Considerations 875 None. [[ ...and thus this section can be removed before publication 876 as an RFC... ]] 878 5. Security Considerations 880 People who participate remotely in face-to-face IETF meetings might 881 expect the same level of privacy as they have when they participate 882 directly in those meetings. Some of the proposed tools might cause 883 it to be easier to know which WGs a remote attendee was following. 884 When RPS tools are deployed, the IETF should describe the privacy 885 implications of using such a tool to the users so they can decide 886 whether or not to use the tools. 888 The eventual RPS tools will have some user authentication that will 889 associate people with actions. For example, a remote user might need 890 to authenticate to the system in order to give a presentation or 891 speak during a session. The credentials needed for this 892 authentication will need to be managed in a secure fashion, both by 893 the system and by the people who are being identified. 895 6. Acknowledgements 897 Many of the ideas in this document were contributed by members of the 898 IETF community based on their experiences during recent IETF 899 meetings. There are also many contributions from people on the 900 vmeet@ietf.org mailing list, WG chairs, and attendees in the RPSREQS 901 BoF at IETF 83 in Paris. 903 Some of the text in this document originated in the request for 904 proposals that was issued by the IAOC that led to this document. 906 7. Informative References 908 [BCP78] Bradner, S. and J. Contreras, "Rights Contributors Provide 909 to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378, November 2008. 911 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 912 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 914 [RFC2418] Bradner, S., "IETF Working Group Guidelines and 915 Procedures", BCP 25, RFC 2418, September 1998. 917 [RFC6120] Saint-Andre, P., "Extensible Messaging and Presence 918 Protocol (XMPP): Core", RFC 6120, March 2011. 920 [RFC6121] Saint-Andre, P., "Extensible Messaging and Presence 921 Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence", 922 RFC 6121, March 2011. 924 [RPS-RFP] IAOC, "Request for Proposals for Requirements Development 925 for Remote Participation Services", 2011, . 929 Appendix A. Background on IETF Remote Participation 931 The IETF has a long history of using remote participation tools. 932 This history causes many IETF participants to have strong opinions 933 about what future tools should provide and who should benefit from 934 those tools. The purpose of this section is to describe many of the 935 common perceptions of the current tools so that the reader 936 understands what might be expected of future tools. 938 Users' experience with the current IETF tools vary widely. Some 939 participants think the tools are fine and are grateful that they 940 exist. Other participants find them barely acceptable because they 941 have used better tools in other environments. Often, local attendees 942 mostly forget that the remote attendees are participating until one 943 gets gets reminded, such as by something said at the mic. Local 944 attendees don't have a feeling for how many remote attendees are just 945 listening like most of the local attendees. 947 The variety of current experiences can help inform the discussion of 948 how to improve the tools. The experiences described in this appendix 949 are derived from the current tools. It is important to note that 950 people who attend IETF meetings often experience the tools quite 951 differently than those who participate remotely. 953 The IETF has years of experience with the three primary tools used at 954 its regular meetings: prepared slides that are distributed before and 955 during the meeting, Jabber for IM, and streaming audio. This section 956 discusses some of the reactions of users -- those in the meetings and 957 those who have participated remotely -- to the current tools. 959 Remote attendees typically participate by asking questions or making 960 statements during or after presentations, and they also participate 961 in discussions in the instant messaging channel. Local attendees who 962 are using the RPS typically don't participate "remotely": they are 963 using the tools to be able to see what is happening in different 964 rooms when they need to be two or more places at once. 966 A.1. How the IETF Meets 968 o WG sessions at regular IETF meetings -- A typical regular IETF 969 meeting has about 150 sessions lasting one to two and one half 970 hours each, with up to 8 of those sessions happening at the same 971 time. A session might have between 20 and 200 local attendees in 972 the room, and might have only a few or many dozens of remote 973 attendees. WG sessions typically have one to three co-chairs at 974 the front of the room and a series of individuals who come to the 975 front to present; some presentations are made by small panels. 977 o Plenaries at regular IETF meetings -- There are usually two 978 plenaries at a regular IETF meeting, with on-site attendance of 979 about 700 local attendees and dozens of remote attendees. There 980 are from 1 to 20 presenters; presentations may be made by multiple 981 people. 983 o AD-sponsored lunch meetings at regular IETF meetings -- These 984 meetings are scheduled by the IETF Secretariat. Regular IETF 985 meetings are more than just a group of WG meetings. Remote 986 attendees may want to participate in the other parts of a regular 987 meeting as well. 989 o Face-to-face interim WG meetings -- Between regular IETF meetings, 990 some WGs hold interim meetings where attendees get together at a 991 site (often a company's meeting room, but sometimes a meeting room 992 rented at a hotel). At such meetings, there are between a handful 993 and a few dozen local attendees and a similar number of remote 994 attendees, if remote participation is supported. Presentations 995 are common. There are typically fewer than 15 face-to-fact 996 interim meetings a year. 998 o Virtual interim WG meetings -- Between regular IETF meetings, some 999 WGs hold virtual interim meetings where there are no local 1000 attendees because there is no central meeting location. There are 1001 between a handful and a few dozen attendees. Presentations are 1002 common. There are typically fewer than 25 face-to-fact interim 1003 meetings a year. 1005 o IETF leadership meetings -- The IETF leadership (the IESG, IAOC, 1006 IAB, and probably others) have periodic virtual meetings, usually 1007 with presentations. These groups also meet at the regular IETF 1008 meetings, and sometimes have remote attendees at those meetings 1009 (such as members who cannot attend the IETF meeting or presenters 1010 who are not part of the leadership group). 1012 The form of "presentations" changes from meeting to meeting, but 1013 almost always includes prepared static slides and audio of the 1014 speaker. Presentations sometimes also includes non-static slides 1015 (usually animations within a slide) and sometimes video. 1017 A.2. Technologies Currently Used at Regular IETF Meetings 1019 There are three tools that are used by remote attendees for WG 1020 participation at regular IETF meetings: real-time audio, instant 1021 messaging, and slides. 1023 For the past few years, the IETF has used audio streamed over HTTP 1024 over TCP. TCP is often buffered at many places between (and in) the 1025 origination in the IETF meeting venue and the users' computer. At 1026 recent meetings, delays of around 30 seconds have been recorded, with 1027 minimum delays typically being five seconds. This delay is caused by 1028 buffering at the hop-by-hop ISPs and in the remote attendee's 1029 computer. At recent IETF meetings, remote attendance is almost 1030 always less than 10% of local attendance, and is often less than 5%. 1031 (There are more remote attendees when the IETF meeting is in the 1032 U.S.) Each stream is represented by an MP3 playlist (sometimes called 1033 an "m3u file"). 1035 The IETF long ago standardized on Jabber / XMPP ([RFC6120], 1036 [RFC6121], and others) for instant messaging used within the IETF. 1037 Jabber rooms (formally called "multi-user conferences" or "MUCs") 1038 exist for every WG, and those rooms are live all the time, not just 1039 during regular IETF meetings. BoFs have jabber rooms that are 1040 available during IETF meetings. There are also stable Jabber rooms 1041 for the plenaries and certain other activities. BoFs are usually 1042 assigned Jabber rooms before a regular meeting. 1044 Presentation slides normally are stored either as PDFs or in one of 1045 Microsoft's formats for PowerPoint. They are projected on a local 1046 screen from someone's laptop computer. Proceedings are currently 1047 stored as PDF of the slides, although they used to be stored as HTML. 1049 There has been experience at recent meetings with two tools, WebEx 1050 and Meetecho, which are supported experimentally by the IETF. Each 1051 tool was used by a handful of WGs with mixed success. The tools 1052 require remote attendees to use specific clients, and installation of 1053 those clients caused problems for some people. On the other hand, 1054 the tools have much more robust meeting control features, and 1055 attendees appreciated the real-time showing of slides during 1056 presentations. 1058 A.3. Locating the Meeting Information 1060 Finding information for the real-time audio, instant messaging, and 1061 slides for an upcoming or current regular meeting is complicated by 1062 that information being in many different locations on the IETF web 1063 site, and the fact that the relevant URLs can change before and even 1064 during the meeting. Further, a WG chair might copy the latest 1065 information and send it to the WG mailing list, but there can be 1066 later changes. Experienced remote attendees have gotten used to 1067 checking just before the meeting itself, but even that does not 1068 always guarantee the correct information. 1070 Currently, the meeting information appears in two different agendas: 1072 o The official agenda on the IETF Datatracker includes links to 1073 venue maps, WG charters, agendas, and Internet-Drafts. For 1074 example, see 1075 . 1077 o The unofficial "tools-style agenda" includes the same links as the 1078 official agenda plus links to the presentations, audio, minutes, 1079 Jabber room, and Jabber logs 9represnted as small icons). For 1080 example, see . 1082 A.3.1. Audio 1084 The URL for the audio stream for a WG or BoF meeting is based on the 1085 room that the meeting is in. The audio streams are announced on the 1086 general IETF mailing list (ietf@ietf.org) before each meeting. 1088 A common complaint is that when a WG meeting moves to a different 1089 room, remote users need to know about the move so that they can use 1090 the proper URL to hear the audio stream. The room changes are often, 1091 but not always, announced on WG mailing lists; when they are not 1092 announced, there is no easy way for a remote attendee to find out 1093 which audio stream they should be listening to. Sometimes, room 1094 changes happen just as a WG meeting is starting, making it nearly 1095 impossible for a remote attendee to know about the change in streams. 1097 IETF meetings happen in venues such as hotels and conference centers, 1098 most of which have their own audio setups. The IETF Secretariat 1099 contracts with those venues for the use of some or all of their audio 1100 system. Without such integration, audio from remote attendees might 1101 not be reliably heard by local attendees. 1103 A.3.2. Instant Messaging 1105 The Jabber rooms used by WGs and BoFs do not change between IETF 1106 meetings, so finding the right Jabber room is relatively easy. Some 1107 Jabber clients have odd interfaces for joining Jabber rooms, and this 1108 can cause some problems; even though attendees can test their Jabber 1109 clients before a meeting, there still seems to be some who need help 1110 just before a WG meeting. There are sometimes problems with people 1111 joining Jabber rooms; in these cases, the attendee needs to find 1112 someone already in the Jabber room to invite them to the discussion. 1114 A.3.3. Slides 1116 Slides are presented in regular IETF meetings with projectors on a 1117 screen at the front of the room from the video output of one or more 1118 local attendees' computers. The same slides are available online for 1119 remote attendees. 1121 Slides are available to local and remote attendees on the IETF 1122 servers before and during regular IETF meetings. This service is 1123 useful to all attendees who want to be prepared for WG meetings. The 1124 slides are not only used by remote attendees listening to the WG 1125 meeting; it is common for local attendees to download the slides and 1126 view them on their laptops during meetings instead of having to read 1127 them from the front of the room. 1129 Slides are available from the meeting materials page. Many, but 1130 certainly not all, local and remote attendees know how to find the 1131 meeting materials page. 1133 It has become fairly common for presenters to not have their 1134 presentations available for distribution until just before the WG 1135 meeting. Because materials are uploaded by the WG chairs, this often 1136 causes the beginning of WG meetings to be a dance involving 1137 presenters giving the chairs their slides, followed by chairs 1138 uploading the slides to the IETF site, followed by the chairs saying 1139 "the slides are there now". 1141 A.4. Remote Participation at IETF Meetings 1143 A.4.1. Remotely Speaking at the Mic 1145 Newcomers to regular IETF meetings often expect the floor control in 1146 WG meetings to be fairly straight-forward. By Tuesday, they might be 1147 shaking their heads, wondering why some people cut into the mic 1148 lines, why some people get up to the mics after the chair has closed 1149 the line, why some people ignore presenters' requests to hold 1150 questions to the end, and so on. Mixing remote attendees into this 1151 social structure will be a daunting task, but one that has been dealt 1152 with in many remote participation systems. 1154 In order for a remote attendee to speak at the mic, a local attendee 1155 must say it for them. In most WG and BoF meetings, this is done by 1156 the remote attendee typing into the Jabber room for the meeting, and 1157 some local attendee going to the mic and repeating what was typed 1158 into the Jabber room. Remote attendees often precede what they want 1159 said at the mic with the string "mic:" to differentiate that from the 1160 rest of the discussion in the Jabber room. 1162 In some WGs, there have been experiments of getting remote attendees 1163 voices into the room either by hooking into the room's sound system 1164 or pointing a mic at the speaker of a laptop. This sometimes works, 1165 but sometimes has bad feedback and delay issues that make the remote 1166 participation worse than having a person reading their comments at 1167 the mic. 1169 The "Jabber-to-mic" method of participation often works adequately, 1170 but there are many places where it fails. It has issues similar to 1171 most proxy approaches where a human is in center of the loop. The 1172 following is a compendium of stories from recent IETF meetings and 1173 interim face-to-face meetings where remotely speaking at the mic 1174 didn't work as well as it could have. The list is given here to both 1175 point out what some WGs are willing to put up with currently, and to 1176 show what is needed if the eventual RPS uses Jabber-to-mic as part of 1177 the solution. The attendees are Chris and Carl (WG co-chairs), Sam 1178 (volunteer Jabber scribe), Rachel and Robert (remote attendees), Pete 1179 (presenter), and Len and Lee (local attendees). 1181 o Robert cannot understand what Pete is saying about slide 5, but 1182 Sam doesn't get Pete's attention until Pete is already on slide 7 1183 and Pete doesn't want to go back. 1185 o Rachel wants to say something, but Sam's Jabber client has crashed 1186 and no one else in the Jabber room knows why Sam isn't going to 1187 the mic. 1189 o Robert wants to say something, but Sam is already at the mic 1190 speaking for Rachel so Sam doesn't see Robert's message until he 1191 has gotten out of the mic line. 1193 o Sam is speaking for Robert, and Rachel wants to comment on what 1194 Robert said. Unless Sam reads the message as he is walking back 1195 to his seat, Rachel doesn't get to speak. 1197 o Robert wants to say something at the mic, but Sam is having an 1198 important side discussion with the AD. 1200 o Sam is also the minutes taker, and is too busy at the moment 1201 catching up with the lively debate at the mic to relay a question 1202 from Rachel. 1204 o Chris thought Carl was watching the Jabber room, but Carl was 1205 reading the draft that is being discussed. 1207 o Chris and Carl start the meeting by asking for volunteers to take 1208 minutes and be Jabber scribe. They couldn't find a Jabber scribe, 1209 and it took a lot of begging to get someone to take minutes, so 1210 they figured that was the best they could do. 1212 o Sam is also a presenter, and Robert has a question about Sam's 1213 presentation, but Sam is obviously not looking at the Jabber room 1214 at the time. 1216 o Rachel asks a question through Sam, and Pete replies. Len, who is 1217 next in line at the mic, starts talking before Sam has a chance to 1218 see whether or not Rachel has a follow-up question. 1220 o Robert makes a point about one of Pete's slides, and Pete responds 1221 "I don't think you're looking at the right slide" and continues 1222 with his presentation. Robert cannot reply in a timely fashion 1223 due to the lag in the audio channel. 1225 o Pete starts his presentation by asking for questions to be held 1226 until the end. Robert has a question about slide 5, and is 1227 waiting until the end of the presentation to post the question in 1228 the Jabber room. After slide 7, Len jumps to the mic and 1229 vehemently disagrees with something that Pete said. Then Lee gets 1230 up to respond to Len, and the three of them go at it for a while, 1231 with Lee getting up again after slide 10. The presentation ends 1232 and is over time, so Carl says "we need to move on", so Robert 1233 never gets to ask his question. 1235 o Chris asks "are there any more questions" while Rachel is typing 1236 furiously, but she doesn't finish before Chris says "I don't see 1237 anyone, thanks Pete, the next speaker is...". 1239 o Rachel comments on Pete's presentation though Sam. Sam doesn't 1240 understand what Rachel is asking, and Len goes to the mic to 1241 explain. However, Len gets his explanation of what Rachel said 1242 wrong and by the time Pete answers Len's interpretation, Rachel 1243 gives up. 1245 o This is the first time Pete is presenting at an IETF meeting, and 1246 Robert has the first question, which is relayed through Sam. Pete 1247 stays silent, not responding the question. Robert can't see 1248 Pete's face to know if Pete is just not understanding what he 1249 asked, is too afraid to answer, is just angry, or something else. 1251 o Pete says something incorrect in his presentation, and Len asks 1252 the folks in the Jabber room about it. Rachel figures out what 1253 Pete should have said, and others in the Jabber room agree. No 1254 one goes to the mic because Pete has left the topic, but only the 1255 people watching Jabber know that the presentation was wrong. 1257 o Pete says something that the AD sitting at the front of the room 1258 (not near a mic) doesn't like, and the AD says a few sentences but 1259 doesn't go to the mic. The chairs try to repeat what the AD says, 1260 get it only approximately right, but the remote attendees do not 1261 hear what really was said and therefore cannot comment 1262 effectively. 1264 o Sam only volunteered to be scribe because no one else would do it, 1265 and isn't sitting close to the mic, and gets tired of getting up 1266 and down all the time, and doesn't really agree with Robert on a 1267 particular issue, so Sam doesn't relay a request from Robert. 1269 o Rachel cannot join the Jabber room due to a client or server 1270 software issue. She finally finds someone else on Jabber who is 1271 also in the meeting, and gets them to invite her into the room. 1273 A.4.2. Remotely Presenting 1275 Some WGs have experimented with remote presentations at regular IETF 1276 meetings, with quite mixed results. For some, it works fine: the 1277 remote presenter speaks, the chair moves the slides forward, and 1278 questions can be heard easily. For others, it is a mess: the local 1279 attendees can't hear the presenter very well, the presenter can't 1280 hear questions or there is a long delay, and it was not clear when 1281 the presenter was waiting for input or there was a lag in the sound. 1283 At a recent meeting that had a remote presenter, a WG had a video 1284 camera set up at the chairs' desk pointed towards the audience so 1285 that the presenter could see who was at the mic; this was considered 1286 to be a great help and a lot friendlier because the presenter could 1287 address the people at the mic by name. They also had the presenter's 1288 head projected on the screen in the room, which led to a lot of jokes 1289 and discussion of whether seeing the remote presenter caused people 1290 to pay more attention. 1292 Remote presenters have commented how difficult it is to set up their 1293 systems, particularly because they are not sure whether their setup 1294 is working until the moment they are supposed to be presenting. Even 1295 then, the first few minutes of the presentation has a feeling of "is 1296 this really working?". 1298 A.4.3. Floor Control 1300 Although Appendix A.4.1 may seem like it is a bit harsh on WG chairs, 1301 the current tools do not give them the kind of control over remote 1302 attendees that they have over local attendees. The chairs can tell 1303 what is happening at the mics, but have much less view into what is 1304 happening on Jabber, even if they are watching the Jabber room. 1305 Without as much view, they cannot assist the flow of the conversation 1306 as well. 1308 o Carl sees that the Jabber room has an active and useful back- 1309 channel discussion during Pete's provocative presentation. Pete 1310 finishes and asks for questions. Lee and Len rush to the mic 1311 line, and it takes Robert a few seconds to get his question into 1312 the Jabber room and for Sam to go to the mic. Carl tries to 1313 prioritize Sam forward in the line, but Len gets upset when he 1314 does. 1316 o Rachel asks a question, but Sam is not going to the mic to relay 1317 it. In fact, Sam has pretty much stopped paying attention. Chris 1318 cannot do something about the situation without making Sam look 1319 bad. 1321 o Pete has run over time, Robert asks what is supposed to be the 1322 last question, and Pete doesn't understand what Sam said. Carl 1323 cannot tell whether to wait for Robert to rephrase the question or 1324 whether Robert even heard Pete's response. 1326 o In a virtual interim where remote attendees all participate by 1327 voice, someone can be heard typing / eating / talking loudly to 1328 someone else. Carl and Chris try to get that person's attention 1329 over the audio and Jabber, but to no avail. The tool being used 1330 does not have the ability to mute individual attendees, so the 1331 meeting is disrupted until that person finally realizes that he or 1332 she is not muted. 1334 Some of these problems are alleviated by some of the proprietary 1335 solutions that have been experimented with. For example, WebEx and 1336 other systems have a "raise hand" feature where a remote attendee can 1337 indicate in the application or through a web form that they want to 1338 speak. 1340 A.5. Remote Participation at IETF Interim WG Meetings 1342 Face-to-face interim meetings have many things in common with regular 1343 IETF meetings, but there are also many significant differences. For 1344 most WGs, fewer people attend interim meetings than IETF meetings, 1345 although those who travel to a face-to-face interim meeting are often 1346 the more active WG participants. There may be a larger demand for 1347 remote participation because people have a harder time justifying 1348 travel for a single WG meeting than for an IETF meeting, but there 1349 may also be less demand because people tend to think of interim WG 1350 meetings as less important than regular IETF meetings.. 1352 Typically, the IETF Secretariat does not control the rooms in which 1353 face-to-face interims are held, so they have no control over whether 1354 outgoing audio will be supported, or supported well enough to 1355 guarantee that remote attendees can hear. 1357 A.5.1. Face-to-Face Interim Meetings 1359 Many interim meetings are held face-to-face in conference rooms 1360 supplied by companies active in the IETF (and, much less often, in 1361 commercial conference facilities such as hotels). Because these 1362 facilities are not administered by the IETF Secretariat, the ability 1363 to include remote attendees varies widely. Some facilities can 1364 distribute the in-room audio over the Internet just fine, while 1365 others have no or limited abilities to do so. 1367 For example, a recent face-to-face interim meeting was supposed to be 1368 open to remote attendees through WebEx, but the sound coming from the 1369 room was too soft to hear reliably. Even if a face-to-face interim 1370 meeting has good facilities for audio and slide presenting, it will 1371 probably have an experience similar to regular IETF meetings. 1373 A.5.2. Virtual Interim Meetings 1375 Because few WGs have virtual interim meetings (those with no face-to- 1376 face attendees), there is less experience with the tools that are 1377 commonly used for them. The IETF has had free use of WebEx for a few 1378 years, and some WGs have used different tools for audio 1379 participation. For example, some virtual interims are held using 1380 Skype, others with TeamSpeak, and so on. 1382 So far, the experience with virtual interim meetings has been 1383 reasonably good, and some people say that it is better than for 1384 remote attendees at regular IETF meetings and face-to-face interims 1385 because everyone has the same problems with getting the group's 1386 attention. Also, there are no problems getting the in-room audio 1387 into the RPS because all attendees are using their own computers for 1388 speaking to the group. 1390 One of the often-debated aspects of virtual interim meetings is what 1391 time to have them in order to make them available to all attendees. 1393 Such scheduling of virtual interim meetings is out of scope for this 1394 document. However, it is noted that because many attendees will be 1395 attending at different times of day and night, no assumption can be 1396 made that attendees will be at an "office". This debate also affects 1397 face-to-face interim meetings because the meeting hosts normally will 1398 schedule the meeting during business hours at the host company, but 1399 that might be terribly inconvenient for some WG members. 1401 Author's Address 1403 Paul Hoffman 1404 VPN Consortium 1406 Email: paul.hoffman@vpnc.org