On Jan 15, 2015, at 10:36 AM, Mary Barnes
<mary(_dot_)h(_dot_)barnes(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com> wrote:
FWIW, I totally agree with Robert as well as the concerns Ted has raised.
In particular, I totally share Robert's concern about the confusion to the
community as to where new work should go. One of the huge advantages we
achieved with the formation of the DISPATCH WG was that unless it was crystal
clear what WG the work was most relevant to, individuals (for the most part)
came to the DISPATCH WG/chairs. Prior to that, we would have people WG
shopping and there was one situation where the same draft was presented in 3
different WGs.
I also agree with Robert, Ted, and I guess now Mary :-)
I see an advantage merging APPS and RAI. I don't see the advantage of adding
TSV to the mix.
As it happens, and I think mainly due to the luck of the draw, I've chaired
multiple "frontier" working groups, that is, groups that had significant
cross-area participation and dependencies. SIMPLE started in APPS, then moved
into RAI when that area was formed. XMPP has major dependencies on APPS work,
and its participants have as much (or more) APPS experience as RAI experience.
I agree with Ted's statements that the divide between APPS and RAI is rather
artificial. (They both even have "applications" in their names.)
The other working group that I chaired was DART, which was a cross-area effort
between RAI and TSV. I think this was important work, and needed to happen.
That need will reoccur from time to time, and should probably be easier to make
that sort of work happen. But DART also made it clear that these two groups do
not have nearly as much in common technically as do RAI and APPS. If the goal
of such a merger is to bridge that technical divide, then there might be value
in doing this. But if the goal is to lighten the workload of the responsible
ADs, I think merging TSV with RAI might actually make things worse, at least
for the near future.
IMHO, the workload issue could be much more effectively handled by taking
better advantage of directorates. The RAI area directorate is not at all
been utilized as it could be.
I agree on both points. There might be value in also making more use of
technical advisors to working groups.
Regards,
Mary.
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