​From the point of view of an audience of these sessions, I see few differences: There is a specific structure to Discussion Room sessions that is described in, for example here. There is also a process regarding call for proposals/abstracts, reviewing them, and accepting them. This level of freedom for a subset of people (Discussion Room organizers) to control the outline and processes around Discussion Room sessions may be in contrast with what you said earlier regarding the conditions that you would like to define for discussions happening under BoF: " They are generally more specialized or aimed towards a more precise public, and are not selected by the programme committee nor curated beyond a simple set of criteria[1] so they are more free-form." and "[1] They need to be directly related to the movement or an allied movement.​​". I want to specifically emphasize "nor curated beyond a simple set of criteria".

If you see a way for allowing/having the kind of structure and process that Discussion Rooms require under BoF, then I have no more questions. :) If not, I'd appreciate if you help me understand this better.

Thanks,

Leila