Hum poll

A hum poll is a technique developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to determine rough consensus at face-to-face meetings.

Instead of formal voting, the IETF works by developing consensus — trying to get a large majority to agree on a decision through discussion before moving on. The hum poll is used to determine rough consensus because it's anonymous and relatively secure — most people hum at about the same volume.

The technique is sometimes used by other standards bodies, like the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).