RFC 7282 – On Consensus and Humming in the IETF

tools.ietf.org

3 pointsyuvadam3 comments

Very cool, and applicable to engineers of all stripes on teams of all sizes. Learning to communicate and build consensus among your colleagues is as much a life-long learning endeavor as becoming a master engineer.

What is "humming" in this context?

Humming is the making of a low, steady continuous sound like that of a bee, as described in the dictionary.

In the IETF, we use this as a variety of voice vote. However, we don't take formal decisions using it; we use it to get a "sense of the room". The chair will make a statement, and say "if you agree, hum... if you disagree, hum... if you didn't express an opinion, hum...". And people hum.

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