At 07:03 30-07-2009, Samuel Weiler wrote:
During the plenary yesterday, it came out that the IETF has retained
the working group attendance sheets ("blue sheets") from previous
meetings, and those are occasionally the subject of subpoenas.
In the interest of minimizing IETF overhead and reducing legal risks
to individual participants, I'd like to see those old records
destroyed. And, though there appeared to be a variety of opinions,
it sounded like I wasn't alone in this.
It was pointed out during the reply that the cost of retaining the
blue sheets is minimal. Marshall has provided some background
information about the physical material held by the IETF Trust and
their documentation retention policy (see
http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf/current/msg57844.html
). The blue sheets are one of the few artifacts of Working Group
sessions for the last eighteen years. As they are not a burden to
the IETF, it is better to preserve them for history.
There hasn't been any argument about how the legal risk to some
individual participants would be reduced by not having a record of
the presence of the individual at a specific location at a given point in time.
The reason typically given for the attendance lists is planning
meeting room capacity.
That may have been the reason at some point. Minute takers have used
the blue sheets to find out how a participant's name is spelled.
What harms would come from destroying those old records and/or not
collecting such details in the future? And how widespread is the
support for destroying them?
For the sake of openness and transparency, it is better to have an
record of participation. That can be at odds with the corporate
mindset where harm is assessed in terms of legal risk.
There will likely be a bluesheet experiment at IETF 76.
Regards,
-sm
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