At the same time for each AD there is more than one person in the
IETF who is more technically astute than that AD.
perhaps. however, it's hard to identify those people,
They're the ones disagreeing with the ADs in some cases ;-)
The set of people disagreeing with ADs include both technically astute people
and egocentric fools. Depending on whom you ask, you'll get differing
opinions as who which people are in which category.
and they may not
have either the time/energy or neutrality that are required to do final
review.
Neutrality is a two-way street; it is required for ADs too, and they,
just like individuals, have had (and continue to have) their pet
perspectives.
There's more than one kind of neutrality. The kind of neutrality I was
talking about was one that would not inherently favor one vendor's approach
over another, or would not favor one of multiple equally-valid approaches over
another. However, there's nothing whatsoever wrong with an AD having a
technical opinion that one approach is more valid than another. That's their
job.
if they do, they're free to put their names in the hat for the
next NOMCOM.
So the message is "get your employer to ante 80% of your time to the
IETF, or keep your expertise to yourself"?
Nope. The message is that if you are technically astute and have enough time
to review lots of documents from different areas, you will probably end up on
IESG. OTOH, if you don't have enough time to review large numbers of
documents from different areas, you aren't likely to have a sufficently broad
perspective to warrant allowing you to override the opinions of those who do.
Of course you can still contribute your expertise in numerous ways - by
participating in WG discussions, sending comments to WGs you don't participate
regularly in, sending Last Call comments, sending comments to IESG well in
advance of Last Call, submitting your own drafts, etc. All of these are
highly appreciated, and some of them - particularly Last Call comments - carry
considerable weight. But just because you are enamored with (your opinion of)
your expertise doesn't mean that you get to have your work endorsed by the
entire organization without having it reviewed by people who attempt to make
sure that it makes sense from a broad perspective.
Keith
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