RIPE80 was a success. Just look at the numbers. So well done everybody! Amazing job. So what next? As has been said, and indeed it is obvious, it is too early to make decisions about RIPE81 or even Milan. But I think we can be fairly relaxed about going virtual again for RIPE81 if we have to do so. But then what? Apparently there were once four RIPE meetings in the same year! But for a number of years we had three meetings each year, most of them in Amsterdam. Then we moved to two meetings, with many being away from Amsterdam. And of course in parallel the ease and scale of on-line participations has improved. It is interesting though to look at the on-site participation. It has varied markedly not only in terms of overall numbers but also in the mix. There is a fair amount of churn in there. And I am now also sensitive to the idea that low density travel will mean more expensive travel. I am of course looking forward to our next on-site meeting. Like many other people? But I would expect virtual meetings to now be part of the normal mix. At least one every other year? If not more? Gordon
Gordon Lennox wrote on 2020-05-15 8:41:
But I would expect virtual meetings to now be part of the normal mix. At least one every other year? If not more?
Looking at what is mostly considered a very successful RIPE80 Virtual. I love your idea, Gordon. If moving to e.g. 3 RIPE meetings a year, with the virtual edition being in short format (compared to the normal 5 days for the in person meetings). I would love to see in the future, post corona lockdown. Cheers, Chriztoffer
Gordon, Thank you for starting this. The virtual meeting was extremely well organised. It could hardly have been better. But it is far from the same as meeting in person. I miss the applause. I miss the non-verbal interaction. I miss the meetings in the hallways and in the bar. Some discussions during this meeting were less than optimal due to the lack the moderation of such venues and the opportunity to really look each other in the face while discussing. Really meeting each other is a big part of keeping community spirit and coherence. I have learnt much much less than I usually do during meetings. Do not get me started about how physical distance makes the work of the NomCom more difficult. We need regular physical meetings for a plethora of reasons. So we should be careful with steps that give the bean counters opportunities to create facts for us. Daniel
Hi, On 15.05.20 08:41, Gordon Lennox wrote:
RIPE80 was a success. Just look at the numbers. So well done everybody! Amazing job.
So what next?
As has been said, and indeed it is obvious, it is too early to make decisions about RIPE81 or even Milan. But I think we can be fairly relaxed about going virtual again for RIPE81 if we have to do so.
But then what?
Apparently there were once four RIPE meetings in the same year! But for a number of years we had three meetings each year, most of them in Amsterdam. Then we moved to two meetings, with many being away from Amsterdam. And of course in parallel the ease and scale of on-line participations has improved.
It is interesting though to look at the on-site participation. It has varied markedly not only in terms of overall numbers but also in the mix. There is a fair amount of churn in there. And I am now also sensitive to the idea that low density travel will mean more expensive travel.
I am of course looking forward to our next on-site meeting. Like many other people?
But I would expect virtual meetings to now be part of the normal mix. At least one every other year? If not more?
I agree that the RIPE meeting was a very well organized conference and attending it was great fun. Thank you to everyone, who made it possible. I would like to have something like this more often, but I thinks this not reasonable. On the one hand it was good to see, that the transition into cyberspace was so smooth and I want to keep the ability. On the other hand just because the conference was virtual, it does not mean it was not a lot of work. I assume programme committee, working group chairs, RIPE staff and the other group I forgot to mention worked at least as much as for a physical conference. Scaling to three conferences would roughly mean 50 percent more work for this people. Even attendees are constrained how often they could visit conferences. May something per working group would be more fitting, with a way to asynchronously catch up. Kind Regards, Christoph
[speaking with my personat hat, not he PC chair hat] It's good to start that discussion. On Fri, 2020-05-15 at 08:41 +0200, Gordon Lennox wrote:
RIPE80 was a success. Just look at the numbers. So well done everybody! Amazing job.
Yes, indeed I'm so happy on how that meeting worked out - even in sort of keeping the meeting spirit a little bit. [...]
I am of course looking forward to our next on-site meeting. Like many other people?
I think, what this online meeting taught me, is the importance of physical meetings. I've seen that in other online based communities that once people start to actually physically meet it changes a lot to he better. And as much as I enjoyed how RIPE80 turned out, it's not even remotely a replacement for the "real" thing. But I undestand, that this discussion is about additional online meetings.
But I would expect virtual meetings to now be part of the normal mix. At least one every other year? If not more?
On the other hand, I must say that the three day online version exhausted me almost as much as a physical meeting usualy does. I admit, that might be due to the "first time" excitement. So we need to be careful if we think along the lines "well, if we do not need to travel we can just have an additional online meeting". This was a part of the reason why the desicion on a shortened meeting with a very focused schedule was made - people exhaust in front of their screens. Plus there is still the fact that even while we can say "I'm attending the virtual RIPE meeting" our life around us continues, people will walk in, call us up and we lack the distance of the actual conference venue. Additionally, this online event was (at least in my view) partly driven by the energy of people missing the physical meeting due to the current situation, so I'm not sure if that energy level would continue, but that could be worth a try. Thinking about it, I like the idea the DNSWG is trying, i.e. having regular meetings for a small focused group of interested people. This lacks the feeling of "all of us at the RIPE meeting right now", but it might conserve some ressources while still achieving something good. But then I'm not fully decided - I think once the feedback for RIPE80 has been evaluated we should incoorporate that into the discussion. Cheers, Franziska
participants (5)
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Christoph Berkemeier -
Chriztoffer Hansen -
Daniel Karrenberg -
Franziska Lichtblau -
Gordon Lennox