--On Tuesday, June 12, 2007 14:22 -0700 Ted Hardie
<hardie(_at_)qualcomm(_dot_)com> wrote:
...
That does not mean the IETF leadership is itself a
meritocracy; it's not. The IESG and IAB are picked by NomComs
for a variety of skills and "fit" is a critical one. Someone
who can fit into the team the NomCom is building may be
selected over someone who is equal or better in any or all of
our technical disciplines, because of the need to balance
skills, personalities, and time commitments. This last is a
particularly important point, as the IETF is led,
fundamentally, by people who have the will, time, and resources
to dedicate to that effort. There will likely always be
people who have more "merit" on some objective scale than
those who are selected, but who cannot serve because they lack
time or support.
...
Ted, while I agree with what you say above, it suggests two
things to me:
(1) The best way to get a good fit, and an IESG that can work
well together, is to be sure that the IESG is as homogeneous as
possible, with all people having the same perspectives and
opinions. On the other hand, if one wants maximum opportunity
for, e.g., alternate sponsors for BOFs and documents should a
given AD turn one down and for checks and balances more
generally, it would be wise to have as much diversity on the
IESG as possible... diversity that is not necessarily strongly
correlated with harmony. We can only hope that Nomcoms
understand that tradeoff and balance it very carefully.
(2) There has been a tendency in recent years for the scope and
workload of the IESG to increase. Whether that trend is
intentional or not, increases in IESG workload tend to reduce
the number of people who will have the time, resources, and
support to take on IESG positions. If the community wants
maximum diversity, or maximum "merit" in those positions, it is
very much in the community's interest to find ways to bring the
workload down or at least to resist proposals and changes whose
consequence is to increase the workload.
best,
john
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