Weekly posting summary for at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org
Total of 26 messages in the last 7 days. script run at: Fri Jan 31 00:53:02 EST 2014 Messages | Bytes | Who --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------ 23.08% | 6 | 26.27% | 66911 | salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com 7.69% | 2 | 9.42% | 24000 | hongxueipr at gmail.com 7.69% | 2 | 9.20% | 23439 | parminder at itforchange.net 7.69% | 2 | 6.15% | 15671 | evan at telly.org 3.85% | 1 | 4.82% | 12279 | plam.popova at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 4.54% | 11564 | b.schombe at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 4.09% | 10427 | jjs at dyalog.net 3.85% | 1 | 4.04% | 10289 | vanda at uol.com.br 3.85% | 1 | 3.94% | 10041 | thompson.darlene at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 3.80% | 9673 | ocl at gih.com 3.85% | 1 | 3.53% | 9005 | eiriarte at alfa-redi.org 3.85% | 1 | 3.47% | 8844 | wolf.ludwig at comunica-ch.net 3.85% | 1 | 3.14% | 7999 | staff at atlarge.icann.org 3.85% | 1 | 3.05% | 7778 | narten at us.ibm.com 3.85% | 1 | 2.76% | 7034 | cw at christopherwilkinson.eu 3.85% | 1 | 2.74% | 6969 | seth.reiss at lex-ip.com 3.85% | 1 | 2.66% | 6765 | director at icfoss.in 3.85% | 1 | 2.38% | 6052 | carlton.samuels at gmail.com --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------ 100.00% | 26 |100.00% | 254740 | Total
Hello Thomas, it's been some time that I've been wondering, so let me ask: - as experience shows, items outside the duties of At-Large sometimes make up a large proportion of email traffic, e.g. sending greetings on religious holidays, or commenting hotel facilities, or get-well messages. Without any mechanism to evaluate the relevance of a message, what is the purpose of such statistics? - Just as a matter of interest, can such statistics be generated by any ALAC or At-Large member from outside the US, or who does not work in one of the larger IT industries in the US and/or the UK? - Are these statistics shared with, and analyzed, by any individual/entity outside of our ALAC / At-Large community? If so, who/what? Thank you. Jean-Jacques. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Narten" <narten@us.ibm.com> To: at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org Sent: Vendredi 31 Janvier 2014 13:53:02 Subject: [At-Large] Weekly posting summary for at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org Total of 26 messages in the last 7 days. script run at: Fri Jan 31 00:53:02 EST 2014 Messages | Bytes | Who --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------ 23.08% | 6 | 26.27% | 66911 | salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com 7.69% | 2 | 9.42% | 24000 | hongxueipr at gmail.com 7.69% | 2 | 9.20% | 23439 | parminder at itforchange.net 7.69% | 2 | 6.15% | 15671 | evan at telly.org 3.85% | 1 | 4.82% | 12279 | plam.popova at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 4.54% | 11564 | b.schombe at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 4.09% | 10427 | jjs at dyalog.net 3.85% | 1 | 4.04% | 10289 | vanda at uol.com.br 3.85% | 1 | 3.94% | 10041 | thompson.darlene at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 3.80% | 9673 | ocl at gih.com 3.85% | 1 | 3.53% | 9005 | eiriarte at alfa-redi.org 3.85% | 1 | 3.47% | 8844 | wolf.ludwig at comunica-ch.net 3.85% | 1 | 3.14% | 7999 | staff at atlarge.icann.org 3.85% | 1 | 3.05% | 7778 | narten at us.ibm.com 3.85% | 1 | 2.76% | 7034 | cw at christopherwilkinson.eu 3.85% | 1 | 2.74% | 6969 | seth.reiss at lex-ip.com 3.85% | 1 | 2.66% | 6765 | director at icfoss.in 3.85% | 1 | 2.38% | 6052 | carlton.samuels at gmail.com --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------ 100.00% | 26 |100.00% | 254740 | Total _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
I'll let Thomas answer more authoritatively to this question, but for the completeness of information I would like to add a historic point of view. Once upon a time, there was the General Assembly list (GA). Some folks on that list claimed that it was the voice of the people. However, the noise/signal ratio was incredibly high. Most postings were signed "Jeff Williams", and were in large part off topic. When ALAC was being formed, in 2006, I was elected ALAC Liaison to the Board, and there were discussions about representativity of ALAC. My claim was that, although ALAC was in formation phase, the content and weight of the discussion in the At-Large lists was much more important than what was happening in the GA. Please be aware that I had emotional links with the GA, of which I have been the first elected chairperson, back in 2000 or 2001: I am convinced that way back it had a function and the discussions were lively and useful, but in time the debate had fallen to abysmal level. So my point was that the At-Large lists were widely more relevant for the participation of the general public to ICANN activities. Thomas, who was at that time also a Board Liaison, and interested in the inclusiveness of the ICANN processes, started keeping weekly statistics of the traffic on the GA and ALAC public lists, to support this claim. This has been going on until nowadays. Incidentally, the statistics on the GA were also carried on, showing that with the disappearance of Jeff Williams there is only a message every couple of months or so by George Kirikos, and the weekly report of Thomas himself. Personally, I believe that the primary purpose of these statistics is now no longer interesting: the GA is dead, although not yet formally closed, and the At-Large is the established mailing list for At-Large participants, so it could be discontinued without prejudice for ALAC. On the other hand, for the sake of confidentiality and European data protection laws, may I observe that the At-Large list is hosted in the US by ICANN, and publicly available, so all the statistics that Thomas keeps are based on data that are publicly available and hosted in the US anyway. This just for completeness of information, as this
-----Messaggio originale----- Da: at-large-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:at-large- bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] Per conto di Subrenat, Jean-Jacques Inviato: venerdì 31 gennaio 2014 09:12 A: At-Large Worldwide Oggetto: Re: [At-Large] Weekly posting summary for at-large@atlarge- lists.icann.org
Hello Thomas,
it's been some time that I've been wondering, so let me ask:
- as experience shows, items outside the duties of At-Large sometimes make up a large proportion of email traffic, e.g. sending greetings on religious holidays, or commenting hotel facilities, or get-well messages. Without any mechanism to evaluate the relevance of a message, what is the purpose of such statistics?
- Just as a matter of interest, can such statistics be generated by any ALAC or At-Large member from outside the US, or who does not work in one of the larger IT industries in the US and/or the UK?
- Are these statistics shared with, and analyzed, by any individual/entity outside of our ALAC / At-Large community? If so, who/what?
Thank you. Jean-Jacques.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Narten" <narten@us.ibm.com> To: at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org Sent: Vendredi 31 Janvier 2014 13:53:02 Subject: [At-Large] Weekly posting summary for at-large@atlarge- lists.icann.org
Total of 26 messages in the last 7 days.
script run at: Fri Jan 31 00:53:02 EST 2014
Messages | Bytes | Who --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------ 23.08% | 6 | 26.27% | 66911 | salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com 7.69% | 2 | 9.42% | 24000 | hongxueipr at gmail.com 7.69% | 2 | 9.20% | 23439 | parminder at itforchange.net 7.69% | 2 | 6.15% | 15671 | evan at telly.org 3.85% | 1 | 4.82% | 12279 | plam.popova at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 4.54% | 11564 | b.schombe at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 4.09% | 10427 | jjs at dyalog.net 3.85% | 1 | 4.04% | 10289 | vanda at uol.com.br 3.85% | 1 | 3.94% | 10041 | thompson.darlene at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 3.80% | 9673 | ocl at gih.com 3.85% | 1 | 3.53% | 9005 | eiriarte at alfa-redi.org 3.85% | 1 | 3.47% | 8844 | wolf.ludwig at comunica-ch.net 3.85% | 1 | 3.14% | 7999 | staff at atlarge.icann.org 3.85% | 1 | 3.05% | 7778 | narten at us.ibm.com 3.85% | 1 | 2.76% | 7034 | cw at christopherwilkinson.eu 3.85% | 1 | 2.74% | 6969 | seth.reiss at lex-ip.com 3.85% | 1 | 2.66% | 6765 | director at icfoss.in 3.85% | 1 | 2.38% | 6052 | carlton.samuels at gmail.com --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------ 100.00% | 26 |100.00% | 254740 | Total
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
Thanks Roberto, interesting history especially for those of us who are but babes in ICANN and At Large, this being my third year participating. I would say that it is a useful metric as far as geographic distribution and participation. Further analysis on content where discussions can be segregated into various subheadings can be done by those who have the interest and time. i would think that the stats are still useful. One man's trash is another man's treasure. On that note in analyzing content by going to the links where the threads are, one might see what tends to interest people etc. It is one of the most important lists in At Large as it is a place of convergence of the global community within At Large. I would guard against any form of censorship but would say that the mailing list is a tool to encourage participation and dialogue on issues affecting the community whether these are policy related, etc. There will be times where you will find a few regions active on the list and others minimal and there could be various reasons for that. Provoking discussion and dialogue is not always an easy thing to do. Cheers, Sala Sent from my iPad
On Feb 1, 2014, at 6:00 AM, Roberto Gaetano <roberto_gaetano@hotmail.com> wrote:
I'll let Thomas answer more authoritatively to this question, but for the completeness of information I would like to add a historic point of view. Once upon a time, there was the General Assembly list (GA). Some folks on that list claimed that it was the voice of the people. However, the noise/signal ratio was incredibly high. Most postings were signed "Jeff Williams", and were in large part off topic. When ALAC was being formed, in 2006, I was elected ALAC Liaison to the Board, and there were discussions about representativity of ALAC. My claim was that, although ALAC was in formation phase, the content and weight of the discussion in the At-Large lists was much more important than what was happening in the GA. Please be aware that I had emotional links with the GA, of which I have been the first elected chairperson, back in 2000 or 2001: I am convinced that way back it had a function and the discussions were lively and useful, but in time the debate had fallen to abysmal level. So my point was that the At-Large lists were widely more relevant for the participation of the general public to ICANN activities. Thomas, who was at that time also a Board Liaison, and interested in the inclusiveness of the ICANN processes, started keeping weekly statistics of the traffic on the GA and ALAC public lists, to support this claim. This has been going on until nowadays. Incidentally, the statistics on the GA were also carried on, showing that with the disappearance of Jeff Williams there is only a message every couple of months or so by George Kirikos, and the weekly report of Thomas himself. Personally, I believe that the primary purpose of these statistics is now no longer interesting: the GA is dead, although not yet formally closed, and the At-Large is the established mailing list for At-Large participants, so it could be discontinued without prejudice for ALAC. On the other hand, for the sake of confidentiality and European data protection laws, may I observe that the At-Large list is hosted in the US by ICANN, and publicly available, so all the statistics that Thomas keeps are based on data that are publicly available and hosted in the US anyway. This just for completeness of information, as this
-----Messaggio originale----- Da: at-large-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:at-large- bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] Per conto di Subrenat, Jean-Jacques Inviato: venerdì 31 gennaio 2014 09:12 A: At-Large Worldwide Oggetto: Re: [At-Large] Weekly posting summary for at-large@atlarge- lists.icann.org
Hello Thomas,
it's been some time that I've been wondering, so let me ask:
- as experience shows, items outside the duties of At-Large sometimes make up a large proportion of email traffic, e.g. sending greetings on religious holidays, or commenting hotel facilities, or get-well messages. Without any mechanism to evaluate the relevance of a message, what is the purpose of such statistics?
- Just as a matter of interest, can such statistics be generated by any ALAC or At-Large member from outside the US, or who does not work in one of the larger IT industries in the US and/or the UK?
- Are these statistics shared with, and analyzed, by any individual/entity outside of our ALAC / At-Large community? If so, who/what?
Thank you. Jean-Jacques.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Narten" <narten@us.ibm.com> To: at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org Sent: Vendredi 31 Janvier 2014 13:53:02 Subject: [At-Large] Weekly posting summary for at-large@atlarge- lists.icann.org
Total of 26 messages in the last 7 days.
script run at: Fri Jan 31 00:53:02 EST 2014
Messages | Bytes | Who --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------ 23.08% | 6 | 26.27% | 66911 | salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com 7.69% | 2 | 9.42% | 24000 | hongxueipr at gmail.com 7.69% | 2 | 9.20% | 23439 | parminder at itforchange.net 7.69% | 2 | 6.15% | 15671 | evan at telly.org 3.85% | 1 | 4.82% | 12279 | plam.popova at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 4.54% | 11564 | b.schombe at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 4.09% | 10427 | jjs at dyalog.net 3.85% | 1 | 4.04% | 10289 | vanda at uol.com.br 3.85% | 1 | 3.94% | 10041 | thompson.darlene at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 3.80% | 9673 | ocl at gih.com 3.85% | 1 | 3.53% | 9005 | eiriarte at alfa-redi.org 3.85% | 1 | 3.47% | 8844 | wolf.ludwig at comunica-ch.net 3.85% | 1 | 3.14% | 7999 | staff at atlarge.icann.org 3.85% | 1 | 3.05% | 7778 | narten at us.ibm.com 3.85% | 1 | 2.76% | 7034 | cw at christopherwilkinson.eu 3.85% | 1 | 2.74% | 6969 | seth.reiss at lex-ip.com 3.85% | 1 | 2.66% | 6765 | director at icfoss.in 3.85% | 1 | 2.38% | 6052 | carlton.samuels at gmail.com --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------ 100.00% | 26 |100.00% | 254740 | Total
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
Hello Thomas, there have been several comments on the email I sent on this list, about "Weekly posting summary", ranging from a reminder of the history of this summary, to suggestions about its usefulness today. Unless I'm mistaken, you have not replied. Your views would be most welcome. Best regards, Jean-Jacques. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro" <salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro@gmail.com> To: "At-Large Worldwide" <at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org> Cc: "At-Large Worldwide" <at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org> Sent: Vendredi 31 Janvier 2014 19:33:28 Subject: Re: [At-Large] R: Weekly posting summary for at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org Thanks Roberto, interesting history especially for those of us who are but babes in ICANN and At Large, this being my third year participating. I would say that it is a useful metric as far as geographic distribution and participation. Further analysis on content where discussions can be segregated into various subheadings can be done by those who have the interest and time. i would think that the stats are still useful. One man's trash is another man's treasure. On that note in analyzing content by going to the links where the threads are, one might see what tends to interest people etc. It is one of the most important lists in At Large as it is a place of convergence of the global community within At Large. I would guard against any form of censorship but would say that the mailing list is a tool to encourage participation and dialogue on issues affecting the community whether these are policy related, etc. There will be times where you will find a few regions active on the list and others minimal and there could be various reasons for that. Provoking discussion and dialogue is not always an easy thing to do. Cheers, Sala Sent from my iPad
On Feb 1, 2014, at 6:00 AM, Roberto Gaetano <roberto_gaetano@hotmail.com> wrote:
I'll let Thomas answer more authoritatively to this question, but for the completeness of information I would like to add a historic point of view. Once upon a time, there was the General Assembly list (GA). Some folks on that list claimed that it was the voice of the people. However, the noise/signal ratio was incredibly high. Most postings were signed "Jeff Williams", and were in large part off topic. When ALAC was being formed, in 2006, I was elected ALAC Liaison to the Board, and there were discussions about representativity of ALAC. My claim was that, although ALAC was in formation phase, the content and weight of the discussion in the At-Large lists was much more important than what was happening in the GA. Please be aware that I had emotional links with the GA, of which I have been the first elected chairperson, back in 2000 or 2001: I am convinced that way back it had a function and the discussions were lively and useful, but in time the debate had fallen to abysmal level. So my point was that the At-Large lists were widely more relevant for the participation of the general public to ICANN activities. Thomas, who was at that time also a Board Liaison, and interested in the inclusiveness of the ICANN processes, started keeping weekly statistics of the traffic on the GA and ALAC public lists, to support this claim. This has been going on until nowadays. Incidentally, the statistics on the GA were also carried on, showing that with the disappearance of Jeff Williams there is only a message every couple of months or so by George Kirikos, and the weekly report of Thomas himself. Personally, I believe that the primary purpose of these statistics is now no longer interesting: the GA is dead, although not yet formally closed, and the At-Large is the established mailing list for At-Large participants, so it could be discontinued without prejudice for ALAC. On the other hand, for the sake of confidentiality and European data protection laws, may I observe that the At-Large list is hosted in the US by ICANN, and publicly available, so all the statistics that Thomas keeps are based on data that are publicly available and hosted in the US anyway. This just for completeness of information, as this
-----Messaggio originale----- Da: at-large-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:at-large- bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] Per conto di Subrenat, Jean-Jacques Inviato: venerdì 31 gennaio 2014 09:12 A: At-Large Worldwide Oggetto: Re: [At-Large] Weekly posting summary for at-large@atlarge- lists.icann.org
Hello Thomas,
it's been some time that I've been wondering, so let me ask:
- as experience shows, items outside the duties of At-Large sometimes make up a large proportion of email traffic, e.g. sending greetings on religious holidays, or commenting hotel facilities, or get-well messages. Without any mechanism to evaluate the relevance of a message, what is the purpose of such statistics?
- Just as a matter of interest, can such statistics be generated by any ALAC or At-Large member from outside the US, or who does not work in one of the larger IT industries in the US and/or the UK?
- Are these statistics shared with, and analyzed, by any individual/entity outside of our ALAC / At-Large community? If so, who/what?
Thank you. Jean-Jacques.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Narten" <narten@us.ibm.com> To: at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org Sent: Vendredi 31 Janvier 2014 13:53:02 Subject: [At-Large] Weekly posting summary for at-large@atlarge- lists.icann.org
Total of 26 messages in the last 7 days.
script run at: Fri Jan 31 00:53:02 EST 2014
Messages | Bytes | Who --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------ 23.08% | 6 | 26.27% | 66911 | salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com 7.69% | 2 | 9.42% | 24000 | hongxueipr at gmail.com 7.69% | 2 | 9.20% | 23439 | parminder at itforchange.net 7.69% | 2 | 6.15% | 15671 | evan at telly.org 3.85% | 1 | 4.82% | 12279 | plam.popova at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 4.54% | 11564 | b.schombe at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 4.09% | 10427 | jjs at dyalog.net 3.85% | 1 | 4.04% | 10289 | vanda at uol.com.br 3.85% | 1 | 3.94% | 10041 | thompson.darlene at gmail.com 3.85% | 1 | 3.80% | 9673 | ocl at gih.com 3.85% | 1 | 3.53% | 9005 | eiriarte at alfa-redi.org 3.85% | 1 | 3.47% | 8844 | wolf.ludwig at comunica-ch.net 3.85% | 1 | 3.14% | 7999 | staff at atlarge.icann.org 3.85% | 1 | 3.05% | 7778 | narten at us.ibm.com 3.85% | 1 | 2.76% | 7034 | cw at christopherwilkinson.eu 3.85% | 1 | 2.74% | 6969 | seth.reiss at lex-ip.com 3.85% | 1 | 2.66% | 6765 | director at icfoss.in 3.85% | 1 | 2.38% | 6052 | carlton.samuels at gmail.com --------+------+--------+----------+------------------------ 100.00% | 26 |100.00% | 254740 | Total
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
_______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
On 01/31/2014 10:00 AM, Roberto Gaetano wrote:
I'll let Thomas answer more authoritatively to this question, but for the completeness of information I would like to add a historic point of view. Once upon a time, there was the General Assembly list (GA).
I receive several of the "weekly posting" emails for various lists that I'm on. I tolerate them, but only after grumbling (not only about the posting summaries but also that I no longer have recourse to procmail to sort and preprocess my incoming mail.) I don't see any positive value in the weekly summaries: we all know who are the most chatty people on our various mailing lists, so the summaries seem redundant. And they strike me as a kind of socially negative mark that is often glued onto those who may be trying to discuss an issue and understand the nuances. I've often ended up high on those lists - That's because I am a person who realizes that I am often lacking in knowledge and that my initial opinions are fully or partially wrong. So I try to ask questions (which are often disguised as assertions made in hope of eliciting clarifying responses). Because human languages are ambiguous this process of questioning often requires several email exchanges - which may look like arguments. These exchanges sometimes annoy those who like to wrap things up in a single round. As for the GA vs the ALAC: The GA had energy because it was a flat structure not impeded by top-down imposed structures, rules of entry, or Byzantine procedures. As for quality of discourse: One of our problems in this era of faceless electronic communications is that we often have not met face to face. So when we chat online we are too likely, intentionally or not, to be perceived as excessively aggressive. Sometimes that perception is due to cultural differences - For example, we Americans tend to use language "hard as cannon balls" and we suffer the consequences when we inadvertently bruise our peers from cultures that use more indirect forms of discourse. The reverse is also true - Americans tend to wrongly perceive indirect and softer discourse as a kind of passive-agressive behaviour. But sometimes, and perhaps more often, we simply are rude because we do not appreciate that there is a real person at the other side of the screen. As for the Jeff Williams factor: I wonder what has happened to him. Some of us actually spoke to him on the phone. My own experience was that if I treated him as a person that he responded in kind. I also discovered that despite the amount of noise that there sometimes was a nugget of value; but I do admit that the ore was not rich with those nuggets and it took a lot of work to find them. --karl--
Hi Jean-Jacques. At Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:12:02 +0800 (CST), Subrenat, Jean-Jacques wrote:
Hello Thomas,
it's been some time that I've been wondering, so let me ask:
- as experience shows, items outside the duties of At-Large sometimes make up a large proportion of email traffic, e.g. sending greetings on religious holidays, or commenting hotel facilities, or get-well messages. Without any mechanism to evaluate the relevance of a message, what is the purpose of such statistics?
The statistics are easy to generate, because the metrics they show do not attempt to consider content, which requires (presumably) human judgement. I (and others) find these statistics a useful data point to see how busy a list is, and whether the postings are disproportionate to a small number of people. There is also some hope that those that find themselves at the top of the list (in weeks where there is a lot of traffic) will step back and consider whether they could perhaps post less frequently, but with more conciseness. Not everyone thinks these sorts of metrics are useful. YMMV. And there are others who think they would be even more useful if they showed additional statistics (e.g., per thread messages, per topic, etc.). While others are free to further pursue such ideas, I personally have little interest in doing so.
- Just as a matter of interest, can such statistics be generated by any ALAC or At-Large member from outside the US, or who does not work in one of the larger IT industries in the US and/or the UK?
Anyone can generate them. All you need is an archive of mail messages to run them on. The scripts are use are available at http://www.cs.duke.edu/~narten/ietf/weekly-mail-stats.tgz
- Are these statistics shared with, and analyzed, by any individual/entity outside of our ALAC / At-Large community? If so, who/what?
They are public, as are all messages posted to the list. So anyone has access to them. That said, I am not aware of anyone else other than list members using it. Oh, the same stats are generated/sent to the ietf and ppml (ARIN) mailing lists. Thomas
participants (5)
-
Karl Auerbach -
Roberto Gaetano -
Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro -
Subrenat, Jean-Jacques -
Thomas Narten