From: Pete Resnick <presnick(_at_)QUALCOMM(_dot_)COM>
this was meant as a way for the ITU-T management to say, in effect
"he knows what is going on" - this was not intended to mean that any
such designated person carries any more weight in IETF WG
deliberations than does any other individual...
I (and I believe Keith) think it is that latter point that needs to
be explicitly stated in the BCP: Bringing official knowledge to the
IETF is useful and important, but that does not give the delegate and
special weight or privilege in the working group deliberations.
Exactly.
Without explicit words limiting the power and authority of such official
representatives, you will have third parties thundering in working
groups that because the ITU representatives are officially sanctioned
by IETF rules, what they say is more important than what anyone else
says. You will also have WG chairs cutting off debate because ITU
representatives have Spoken. In other, better run WGs, you will have
endless arguments that because the IETF is now participating in the
ITU (as demonstrated by the existence of the official representatives)
and because there are no IETF words limiting the authority of the
official representatives, whatever the representatives say must matter.
There will be similar endless flamewars after Last Calls in the main
IETF list.
Never mind that it seems to me that the whole idea is based on the
crazy notion that because an ITU representative is official, what the
representative says will be complete and accurate. People who are
careful to be complete and accurate are complete and accurate, while
others, whether officially designated or not, aren't. The whole idea
seems based on a naive view of standards committee politics. I'm
thinking in particular of an infamous case several years ago where an
official representative of one IEEE 802 group represented the results
of the group's deliberation to the upper layer opposite to the clear
voting majority of the group, but consistent with the position of the
representative's employeer.
Vernon Schryver vjs(_at_)rhyolite(_dot_)com