On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 7:14 AM, Roni Even
<ron(_dot_)even(_dot_)tlv(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com> wrote:
If this is true it make me wonder why does the IETF care about the
affiliation of WG chairs and ADs
Roni Even
The reason traditionally given that IETF participants in general give their
affiliation is for purposes of individual identification.
The reason there is concern about too many people with the same affiliation
in positions where they judge consensus or the like is to avoid situations
where the organization with which they are affiliated would appear to or
would have the possibility to dominate.
The only hard and fast rules about this in the IETF that I know about are
that nomcom volunteers are required to give their affiliation and no more
than two voting nomcom members can have the same affiliation. Whether this
rule is good or bad is a matter of judgement but it was adopted after
multiple cases where more than two randomly selected voting nomcom members
had the same affiliation and some people felt this created the impression of
dominance.
Thanks,
Donald
*From:* ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
[mailto:ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] *On Behalf
Of *Mark Atwood
*Sent:* Tuesday, April 06, 2010 7:17 PM
*To:* ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
*Subject:* Public musing on the nature of IETF membership and employment
status
Much of what makes the IETF work is how it is very different from other
standards bodies (such as IEEE, ANSI, ISO, NIST, ITU, etc etc).
One key difference is that "groups" do not join the IETF.
Cisco, IBM, MCI, or Linden Lab are not a "members" of the IETF. No agency
of the US government, or of any other government, is a "member" of the IETF.
No university, non-profit, PIRG, PAC, or other "concerned citizens group",
is a "member" of the IETF.
Only individual people can be "members" of the IETF. And "membership" is
mostly defined as "who shows up on the mailing list" and "who shows up at
the meetings".
There have been many cases in the history of the IETF where well known
members who are in the middle of writing standards or of chairing various
important working groups, who have worked for well-known large companies,
will change employers, to other companies, to startups, or to personal
sabbaticals switch around between industry, academia, research, and
government, and this will not, does not, and should not, affect their
position inside the IETF at all.
It appears that sometimes people, inside and outside of the IETF, need to
be reminded of this.
If you want to write standards like the IEEE and ITU do it, you know where
you can find them.
But when you choose to participate in the IETF process, that is how it
works.
And if someone feels that anyone's change in employment status should
affect their standing in any part of the IETF process, that person has
missed the point, and needs to be pointedly reminded of their mistake.
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