Since you guys are affecting my top-of-the-list status for the weekly posting
summary, I'm gonna have to jump in... :)
We can all claim our environment doesn't change our views, but that's hard to
reconcile with human behavior research.
Regardless, I think even you'd agree that one's views on technical issues can
easily change if, for example, one were to switch from working for a
customer/user to a manufacturer.
For example, my company has hired numerous folks for their technical competence
or experiences from other sectors of the VoIP industry, who changed some of
their views on certain technical issues in SIP or RTP once they learned the
issues we have to face on a daily basis. Issues related to interoperability,
or hardware vs. software, or scalability and performance - issues that they
either didn't take into consideration or had different assumptions for, when
they were "users" running the gear or were working in a different SIP "world".
And working on IETF mechanisms is not only about purely technical arguments -
it's about pragmatism as well, and what one finds pragmatic can easily change
based on the environment.
That's also why I would like the IETF Nomcom to continue considering employers
when selecting Area Directors and such - because their employer affects the
environment they view technology from.
-hadriel
________________________________
From: ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
[mailto:ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On Behalf Of Mark Atwood
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 1:40 AM
To: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: Public musing on the nature of IETF membership and employment
status
On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 10:22 PM, Dean Willis
<dean(_dot_)willis(_at_)softarmor(_dot_)com<mailto:dean(_dot_)willis(_at_)softarmor(_dot_)com>>
wrote:
On Apr 8, 2010, at 7:01 PM, Stephan Wenger wrote:
Hi Fred,
Would you really expect me not to throw my weight (assuming there were one)
behind the proposal I fought teeth and claws before-and damage my relationship
with my new employer during the first days on the job?
Yep. If you did, most of the people I know around the IETF would never trust
you again. Instead, we'd expect you to convert your new employer to your old
way of thinking.
I'm afraid I have to agree with Dean here, which is kind of weird.
When I take a job, my employer knows ahead of time what my technical opinions
are. That is *what* they hire me for!
I am no employers' whore, no employers' sycophant, and no employers' sancho.
And I have the (apparently vain) belief that most other people are such as well.
And if moving over to an new employer gives you "inside" technical knowledge
that their standards proposal is somehow superior in ways that you were not
aware of before, despite being part of the standards process in that
technological space, that means that that company is trying to pull a fast one,
and is playing fast and loose with the "must reveal" rules, and thus is being
more than a little slimy.
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