At 07:33 AM 12/22/2000 +0100, Harald Alvestrand wrote:
>At 20:17 21/12/2000 -0500, Tony Hansen wrote:
>>so too can using instant messaging be a valuable tool during a meeting.
>tangential....I wonder whether the IETF could host an IRC server with one
>channel per working group and BOF, as part of the "remote participation"
>effort?
>
>if some organization were to volunteer (and advertise!) this for
>Minneapolis, it could be fun to try.....with the number of laptops in the
>rooms, we could see an interesting example of simultaneous multilevel
>conversations......
I originally missed this thread.....
I run an IRC server for my interop workshops. It is HIGHLY
effective. Even the one developer in Armenia was able to
participate. Interestingly, it was the corporate participants that had a
problem with IRC; most firewalls are set up to block it. A few would open
up to the specific IP address and ports of my server. A few testers had to
use dialup to get to the IRC server and the interop servers (CMP specifies
port 829).
I DID password my server to keep the rifraff out. I also ran a client on
the same subnet to get a log of the conversation.
I MIGHT be willing to open up my IRC server for the duration of next IETF
as an experiment, but I see three problems. First I only have 144Kb
bandwidth, and if people start using the server to transfer files, response
will tank. Second, a password shared by 2000 people is not a password, so
the server will end up being used by all sorts of users. And finally,
there is no one here when I am away to fix any problems.
What I might recommend is to get our host to supply the test IRC
server. They could configure 'rooms' for each workgroup. They could also
make the log files. I would be happy to work out details of this with our
host and anyone that thinks this is worthwhile.
