RFC7649: The Jabber Scribe Role at IETF Meetings
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(IETF Meetings)
(Jabber Scribe)
Independent Submission P. Saint-Andre
Request for Comments: 7649 &yet
Category: Informational D. York
ISSN: 2070-1721 Internet Society
September 2015
The Jabber Scribe Role at IETF Meetings
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. Such
volunteers are commonly called "Jabber scribes". This document
summarizes experience with the Jabber scribe role and provides some
suggestions for fulfilling the role at IETF meetings.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other
RFC stream. The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at
its discretion and makes no statement about its value for
implementation or deployment. Documents approved for publication by
the RFC Editor are not a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7649.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2015 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
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. Know Your Users .................................................3
3. Know Yourself ...................................................4
4. Primary Tasks ...................................................4
5. Additional Tasks ................................................5
6. Suggestions .....................................................6
6.1. Getting Set Up with Jabber .................................6
6.2. Before the Session Begins ..................................6
6.3. As the Session Is Starting .................................7
6.4. During the Session .........................................8
6.5. As the Session Is Ending ...................................9
7. Advanced Tips ...................................................9
8. Dealing with Abusive or Inappropriate Behavior .................10
9. Reporting Problems at the Meeting Venue ........................10
10. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) ............................11
11. Security Considerations .......................................11
12. References ....................................................11
12.1. Normative References .....................................11
12.2. Informative References ...................................12
Acknowledgements ..................................................12
Authors' Addresses ................................................12
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. Because
these chatrooms are currently implemented using Jabber/XMPP
technologies (see [RFC6120] and [XEP-0045]), the role is commonly
referred to as that of a "Jabber scribe" (however, nothing prevents
the IETF from using some other technology for chatrooms in the future
or from discontinuing the use of chatrooms entirely).
This role is important because it is the primary way for a remote
attendee to provide feedback or comments back into most IETF meeting
sessions. Although there are multiple ways that a remote attendee
can listen and follow along, the chatroom provides a method of
returning feedback to the physical meeting in something close to real
time. These methods hold true for IETF working group sessions, IRTF
research group sessions, IETF "birds of a feather" (BoF) sessions,
and similar sessions at IETF meetings.
Based on the authors' personal experience as well as input from other
individuals who frequently volunteer, this document provides some
suggestions for fulfilling the role of a Jabber scribe at IETF
meetings.
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2. Know Your Users
The participants in a chatroom typically fall into three categories,
labeled here for ease of understanding:
o Remote Participants
Remote attendees who are listening to the audio stream or, in some
cases, following the proceedings using a real-collaboration system
(currently exemplified by the Meetecho service). These
participants might wish to send questions or feedback to the
physical room.
o Observers
IETF meeting attendees who are in another simultaneous session in
a different physical room. These participants often monitor the
chatroom to find out when a particular topic is being discussed or
to observe what is being discussed in the chatroom. Typically,
they are not able to listen to the audio stream, and sometimes
they ask for a higher level of commentary so that they can know
when they might need to change locations to participate in the
session's physical room.
o Local Participants
IETF meeting attendees who are in the same physical room.
Sometimes these participants like to follow the discussions in the
physical room and the chatroom at the same time. They can also
provide some assistance to scribes.
It can happen that all of the chatroom participants are local
participants and thus do not require intensive service from a scribe.
Feel free to ask in the chatroom to determine if there are indeed any
remote participants.
Chatroom participants are usually identified by a "nickname" or
"handle" rather than a full name. This can be confusing to scribes,
because they don't always know who is providing comments to be
relayed. A scribe ought to ask for clarification so that the
identity of the remote participant can be communicated at the
microphone (see also Section 10). If a remote participant insists on
remaining anonymous, it is best for the scribe to remind them of the
"Note Well" [NOTE-WELL] and point to that document as a justification
for not relaying said comments to the meeting.
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3. Know Yourself
Different people have different aptitudes and skills. Although some
people who volunteer to act as scribes are able to provide a fairly
complete transcription of what is said and done in the physical
meeting room, that is not the expectation for most volunteers (don't
be scared off by the word "scribe"). Fulfilling the primary tasks
described in the next section is not a significant burden for most
volunteers and can be an enjoyable way to participate in a session.
This document attempts to describe the experience and provide some
helpful guidance, but if you are thinking about volunteering, then
you might also ask other volunteers about their experience. Knowing
your aptitudes and skills (e.g., perhaps you are not a great typist)
can help you understand the level of involvement you are comfortable
with.
4. Primary Tasks
The primary "customers" for a scribe are the remote participants, and
those customers are served in real time. A scribe can assume that
remote participants have access to at least the audio stream and
perhaps also video for a session (except in extraordinary
circumstances, such as when technical problems occur with the
streaming facilities). Even though chatroom sessions are logged
during IETF meetings and these public logs can be a useful adjunct to
the historical record, a scribe is not expected to transcribe what is
said and done during the session. Instead, the primary role of a
scribe is to act as a relay between the physical room and the remote
participants.
In particular, individuals who volunteer for the role of scribe
usually complete the following tasks:
o Relay questions and comments from the chatroom to the physical
room. This typically involves going to the microphone to relay
the comment from the remote participant.
o Count or otherwise take account of the number of chatroom
participants who virtually "hum", raise their hands, volunteer to
review documents, etc., and feed that information back to the
physical room. (Although humming in the physical room provides
some level of anonymity, that is not true in the chatroom since
the only way to register one's opinion is to type something like
"hum in favor"; in this case, it is acceptable for the scribe to
at least provide a rough count or percentage of hums from chatroom
participants in order to get a sense of the chatroom.)
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o Relay information about hums and similar interactions from the
physical room to the chatroom (preferably after receiving a
"readout" from the session chairs).
It is the convention in most sessions that the scribe has the
privilege to go to the front of the microphone line to relay
information from remote participants. Some scribes choose to
exercise that privilege while others choose to wait in line along
with the participants in the physical meeting room. However, be
aware that because of the lag (typically 20 seconds to 2 minutes)
between in-room discussions and the audio stream (as well as the
inevitable delay while a remote participant types a question or
comment to be relayed), it can be helpful for the scribe to "jump the
queue" so that such questions and comments are not stale by the time
they are relayed to the microphone.
5. Additional Tasks
Additionally, some scribes often complete the following tasks:
o Relay the names of people speaking in the physical room to the
chatroom. (To avoid typing the full names of people who speak
frequently, scribes often use initials but ought to expand the
initials on first use.) See Section 6.4 for details.
o Relay the slide numbers or slide titles so that it is easier for
chatroom participants to follow along.
o Query remote participants about audio streaming quality, and relay
such information to the session chairs.
o Relay to the chatroom participants any logistical or procedural
issues related to the meeting (e.g., known technical glitches at
the physical meeting or delays in starting the session).
o Provide links to the current set of slides and the document being
discussed so that chatroom participants can easily follow along.
Although scribes are not generally expected to transcribe the
complete contents of conversations that happen in 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. (By prior arrangement between the session chairs and the
scribe, actual transcription might be expected for particular
sessions.)
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6. Suggestions
Experience has shown that the following behaviors make it easier to
act as a scribe.
6.1. Getting Set Up with Jabber
An overview of the IETF Jabber service can be found at the IETF
Groupchat/Chatroom Service web page [JABBER]. Many common instant
messaging clients support the Jabber/XMPP protocols, and at the time
of writing, a list of such clients can be found at the XMPP Standards
Foundation Software List [XMPPLIST]. Because the IETF Jabber service
provides chatrooms only and does not enable direct registration of
user accounts, you will need to create a user account at another
service; one list of such services can be found at the IM Observatory
Server Directory [XMPPSERV]. At the time of writing, the Meetecho
service used at IETF meetings also enables you to join IETF chatrooms
directly without creating an account at another server.
Not all clients support the ability to join a chatroom, so you might
want to test your preferred software in advance of the meeting (the
hallway@jabber.ietf.org room is a good place to test). Although the
exact user interface for joining a chatroom depends on the software
you are using, typically such software will have a "join room" option
that prompts you to provide the entire room address (e.g.,
"hallway@jabber.ietf.org") or separately provide the name of the room
(e.g., "hallway") and the domain of the chatroom service (e.g.,
"jabber.ietf.org"). Asking your fellow IETF participants about their
preferred software applications can be a good way to learn about
Jabber/XMPP clients that you might want to use.
6.2. Before the Session Begins
If you have volunteered before the session:
o Coordinate with the chairs to ensure that remote participants have
received information about where to find the meeting materials,
agenda, audio stream, etc. (e.g., this information can be sent to
a working group discussion list so that remote participants do not
need to ask about it on entering the chatroom).
o Coordinate with the chairs to see if they have any special
expectations for the scribe (e.g., some chairs might want you to
transcribe more detailed information about the session proceedings
into the chatroom).
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o Ask the session chairs whether it is acceptable for you to advance
to the front of the microphone line with time-sensitive comments
from remote participants.
6.3. As the Session Is Starting
As you are getting settled and ready for the meeting to start:
o Seat yourself near the microphone most 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 microphone.
Typically, this will be a seat near the end of a row or in some
location where you can easily get up out of your seat to go to the
microphone.
o Start up your preferred Jabber client, log into your server, and
join the chatroom for your session; the addresses are of the form
group-name@jabber.ietf.org or bof-name@jabber.ietf.org.
o It can be helpful to open several browser windows or tabs for:
* the agenda page for the session
* the overall agenda page for the IETF meeting (the "tools-style
agenda" can be especially helpful for copying links for
session-specific resources such as the audio stream)
* the materials page so that you can relay links to slides if
necessary (at the time of writing, URLs for materials related
to IETF working groups are of the form
"https://datatracker.ietf.org/
meeting/<nn>/materials.html#<name>", where "nn" is the meeting
number and "name" is the acronym for the working group,
research group, or BoF)
* the documents page for the working group or research group (or
BoF wiki page) in case you want easy access to documents
mentioned but not in the agenda page
* the meeting registration system page (see below)
* the overall remote participation page for the IETF meeting in
question (at the time of writing, the URL for this page is of
the form "http://www.ietf.org/meeting/<nn>/
remote-participation.html", where "nn" is the meeting number
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o Determine if the session will be streamed via a real-time
collaboration system such as Meetecho. If so, you can also point
remote participants to that system for interaction.
o If the session is large or is expected to be especially active
(e.g., a controversial BoF), find a co-scribe who can help you by
sitting at another microphone, taking turns relaying information,
etc.
Identifying one or more co-scribes is particularly useful if you
want to go up to the microphone to speak as an individual, if you
have a presentation to make, or if you need to take a break or
step out of the physical room at some point. You can work with a
co-scribe as a temporary stand-in or as someone who shares
responsibility for scribing throughout the whole meeting.
6.4. During the Session
As you perform your role during the session:
o Identify yourself in both the physical room and the chatroom (or
ask the session chairs to identify you) so that participants in
both venues know you are a scribe.
o Ask chatroom participants what level of information they need
relayed into the chatroom. For example, if all chatroom
participants are listening via audio or a system like Meetecho,
they might need less information relayed from the room.
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 It's not expected that you will know the names of everyone who
comes to the microphone. If you don't know the name of a person
at the microphone, you have several options:
* look at their name badge if you are seated nearby
* query them directly (calling out "state your name, please" is
acceptable)
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* ask in the chatroom or type something like "?? at the mic",
since it is likely that a local participant can identify the
person for you
* if you know part of the attendee's name, look up their full
name in the meeting registration system (at the time of
writing, this is typically found at a URL of the form
"https://www.ietf.org/registration/<meeting>/attendance.py",
such as "https://www.ietf.org/registration/ietf93/
attendance.py"); you can quickly look up a name using this
system if you are in doubt.
o Be aware that a lag happens between the time when something is
said in the physical room and the time when someone provides a
response in the chatroom, and take this into account when the
interaction is time-sensitive (e.g., during a hum or a show of
hands).
o Because of the lag time, ask remote participants who participate
in a hum to indicate what choice their hum is for rather than just
typing "hum" into the chatroom. For example, "hum yes" or "hum
for option 1". You can then more easily tally the results and
report them to the physical room.
6.5. As the Session Is Ending
As you wrap up your scribing at the end of the session:
o Post a message into the chatroom informing all of the participants
that the session is finishing up, and ask for any final comments
to be relayed.
o When the session is done, say so in the chatroom.
o Indicate that you are leaving the Jabber room and that no one will
be available to relay further comments.
7. Advanced Tips
It can be helpful to run two separate Jabber clients connected to two
separate Jabber servers, in order to prevent delays if one of the
servers experiences an outage during the session (yes, it has
happened).
If you have a chance to do so, you might want to measure the lag time
between when something is said in the physical room and when it is
heard on the audio stream and then let the remote participants know
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the length of the delay. This could be accomplished by either
listening to the audio stream yourself or working with a remote
participant who you know is on the audio stream.
Sometimes a remote participant has a long discussion with someone in
the physical room. In these situations, it can be easier to stand at
the microphone so that you can relay a series of comments.
8. Dealing with Abusive or Inappropriate Behavior
On occasion, tempers run hot and discussions become contentious. In
such situations, comments provided in the chatroom might even become
abusive or inappropriate.
A scribe is under no obligation to relay such comments verbatim or to
edit them in real time at the microphone. Instead, a suitable
approach is ask the contributor to rephrase the comments in a more
constructive way.
That said, a scribe is not responsible for managing poor behavior
within the session (that responsibility lies initially with the
chairs) and is not expected to take any specific action other than as
a regular member of the IETF community.
9. Reporting Problems at the Meeting Venue
At the time of writing, there are several ways to report a problem
during an IETF meeting (e.g., problems with media streaming):
o For network and media streaming issues, send email to
tickets@meeting.ietf.org.
o For all other issues, send email to the "Meeting Trouble Desk" via
mtd@ietf.org.
o To chat with members of the Network Operations Center (NOC), join
the noc@jabber.ietf.org chatroom.
o To report a problem with Meetecho, mention "Meetecho" (with a
capital "M") in the chatroom, and the Meetecho team will be
alerted. (They join the chatrooms for all sessions as the user
"Meetecho".)
o To report a problem in person, visit the help desk in the Terminal
Room.
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10. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
When a chatroom participant makes a comment in the chatroom (whether
or not it is relayed to the physical room), that statement is
considered to be a "contribution" to the Internet Standards Process
[RFC2026] and therefore is covered by the provisions of BCP 78 (see
[RFC5378]) and BCP 79 (see [RFC3979] and [RFC4879]). A scribe does
not become a "contributor" by the simple fact of relaying such a
contribution, and the primary responsibility for adherence to the
IETF's IPR policies applies to the person making the comments.
However, a scribe can help ensure compliance with the IETF's IPR
policies by asking chatroom participants using an alias to confirm
their identities before relaying their contributions.
11. Security Considerations
Although XMPP Multi-User Chat [XEP-0045] rooms can be configured to
lock down nicknames and require registration with the chatroom in
order to join, at the time of 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
scribes to be aware of this possibility.
In addition, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks of various kinds are
possible, e.g., flooding a chatroom with unwanted traffic.
12. References
12.1. Normative References
[RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, DOI 10.17487/RFC2026, October 1996,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2026>.
[RFC3979] Bradner, S., Ed., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3979, DOI 10.17487/RFC3979,
March 2005, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3979>.
[RFC4879] Narten, T., "Clarification of the Third Party Disclosure
Procedure in RFC 3979", BCP 79, RFC 4879,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4879, April 2007,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4879>.
[RFC5378] Bradner, S., Ed. and J. Contreras, Ed., "Rights
Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC
5378, DOI 10.17487/RFC5378, November 2008,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5378>.
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12.2. Informative References
[JABBER] IETF, "IETF Groupchat/Chatroom Service",
<http://www.ietf.org/jabber>.
[NOTE-WELL] IETF, "Note Well",
<http://ietf.org/about/note-well.html>.
[RFC6120] Saint-Andre, P., "Extensible Messaging and Presence
Protocol (XMPP): Core", RFC 6120, DOI 10.17487/RFC6120,
March 2011, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6120>.
[XEP-0045] Saint-Andre, P., "Multi-User Chat", XSF XEP 0045,
February 2012.
[XMPPLIST] XMPP Standards Foundation, "Clients",
<http://xmpp.org/xmpp-software/clients>.
[XMPPSERV] IM Observatory, "Public XMPP Server Directory",
<https://xmpp.net/directory.php>.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Dan Burnett, Dave Crocker, Adrian Farrel, Wes George, Janet
Gunn, Joel Halpern, Jelte Jansen, Michael Jenkins, Olle Johansson,
Warren Kumari, Jonathan Lennox, Jon Mitchell, Alexandre Petrescu,
Hugo Salgado, Melinda Shore, Lotte Steenbrink, Yaakov Stein, Dave
Thaler, and Greg Wood for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Adrian Farrel in particular proposed text for the sections on IPR and
dealing with inappropriate behavior.
Authors' Addresses
Peter Saint-Andre
&yet
Email: peter@andyet.com
URI: https://andyet.com/
Dan York
Internet Society
Email: york@isoc.org
URI: https://www.internetsociety.org/
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