The Jabber Scribe Role at IETF Meetings
RFC 7649

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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