[SIPForum-discussion] Purpose of SIP Forum mailing lists? (Was Re: flow of RTP in SIPP)

[Dan York]

Eric,

Responding to your questions inline...

On Dec 27, 2007, at 5:22 PM, Eric Burger wrote:
> 1. Leave the list as is.  Deep questions get addressed on the IETF  
> list.
> Implementers' questions get addressed on the Columbia University list.
> Having this list as the "New Newbie" list keeps irrelevant traffic  
> off of
> those lists, which is a definite service to the SIP community.

DY> Based on questions we are seeing here, there is very obviously a  
need for this type of list.  It could indeed be a service of SIP  
Forum to provide this discussion forum for newcomers.  There is a  
larger question of: who would stay on the list to answer questions?   
If the list is explicitly targeted for newbies, it could easily wind  
up being only newbies talking to each other and helping each other...  
which would certainly be of great help to many, but might cause some  
to look elsewhere for answers if no one with expertise is on the list  
to answer questions.

DY> If SIP Forum wants to move the list in that direction, I think it  
would probably be worthwhile to ensure there are some SIP-literate  
folks willing to stay on the list and help in answering questions.

DY> Re: Greg Zweig's suggestion of a wiki... I think from his  
subsequent text he is really referring to the web "forum" type of  
discussion boards that have been around for quite some time and are  
quite effective in some instances.  The challenge I have always had  
with web forums is that I personally don't make the time to go and  
read and participate in them.  For me, I need something that just  
winds up in my inbox... that is *pushed* to me.  Now, some of the  
forum software today does have a email subscription (or RSS  
subscription) component.

DY> Another way to provide the service Greg is talking about, of  
letting people search the archives, is to move to a different email  
archive system (or subscribe the list to an additional archive  
system) that provides search capabilities).  Unless I'm missing it,  
the current one, http://sipforum.org/pipermail/discussion/ , does not.

DY> As an example, the VOIPSA "VOIPSEC" mailing list at http:// 
www.voipsa.org/VOIPSEC also uses pipermail for subscriptions,  
archive, etc., but *also* has the messages archived at gmane.org  
which provides a searchable and threaded index: http://news.gmane.org/ 
gmane.comp.voip.security.voipsa

DY> Something similar could be done with this email list to make it  
easier for people to find previous questions.

> 2. If we leave the list as is, how does the SIP Forum communicate  
> to its
> Participant Members?
>
> Right now, we have close to 3,000 Participant Members.  The signal/ 
> noise
> ratio on the discussion list is about 1:150 *after* spam removal.

DY> I would suggest that you create another list called  
"members at sipforum.org" which is exclusively for communication among  
SIP Forum members about *activities of the SIP Forum*.  Members could  
ask questions about SIP Forum initiatives, suggest ideas for  
activities, ask questions of the leadership, whine about the website  
or whatever else they wanted to do.  Email about non-SIP-Forum  
activities would be politely pointed elsewhere.  This would allow SIP  
Forum members to truly help grow the organization.  I imagine that  
some of the folks who may want to help the SIP Forum have at this  
point unsubscribed from this "discussion" list purely because it was  
not what they were looking for.

> 3. Should we have something like "sipforum-announce", which would  
> only have
> postings from SIP Forum management?

DY> Yes, this would also be good because I am sure there are people  
out there who do NOT under any circumstances want to join yet one  
more discussion list and only want to keep up with SIP Forum  
activities.  An announce-only list would be valuable for that.

> 4. Should we have something like a moderated discussion list, where  
> the
> moderators take on the responsibility for directing newbies to the  
> right
> list of FAQ?

DY> No.  Personally I find that moderated discussion lists don't do  
very well.  There's the issue of having to have people moderate.   
There's also the time delay.  If people have questions, they are  
usually looking for answers NOW.

DY> I think if you divide it into "discussion" for newbie SIP Q&A,  
"members" for SIP Forum-specific discussion, and "announce" for  
people who just want updates from SIP Forum, you probably are all set.

DY> As I said earlier, though, I would suggest ensuring that there  
are SIP-literate people remaining on the "discussion" list who can do  
what you indicate here and help direct newbies to the appropriate  
sources of information.

My 2 cents,
Dan

-- 
Dan York, CISSP, Director of Emerging Communication Technology
Office of the CTO    Voxeo Corporation     dyork at voxeo.com
Phone: +1-407-455-5859  Skype: danyork  http://www.voxeo.com
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