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Re: Last Call: Policy Statement on the Day Pass Experiment

2010-05-10 10:59:06


On 5/10/2010 8:39 AM, Kurt Zeilenga wrote:

I argue that what the IETF now proposes is not a clarification to the BCP but
a change to the BCP.   Applying such changes retroactively stinks.


Yes, it does stink. As nearly as I can tell, the import of having Day Passes, in terms of other IETF participation such as being on Nomcom, was entirely missed by the community -- that is, by all of us. We are now paying the price for that.

The nature of that price -- besides the pain of this discussion -- is going to be retroactive enfranchisement or disenfranchisement of some attendees. Either way, that's pretty egregious. But since Day Passes have been handled pretty transparently, all along, it does appear to be an error we all share.

The question, now, is how to best handle it. This requires juggling a number of constraints and requirements. For example, it makes no sense to create long-term, complex rules, for handling a short-term issue, even if that creates unfairness for a few attendees. (Specialized rules for handling transient, near-term issues is bad protocol design and bad political process design.)

With respect to Nomcom, we are talking about the core, constitutional process in the IETF, namely the selection of the folk who exert control over the operation of the organization. Anything we decide now needs to hold the quality of that effort as prime, IMO.

Stated rather baldly, I think we will be faced with either /in/cluding some folk who have even less IETF knowledge than we've previously required, or with /ex/cluding some folk who have plenty of IETF experience, but happened to use a Day Pass. (Anyone hearing echoes of the phrase "Type I versus Type II errors" is listening to the correct, heuristic song.)

If we resolve this with simple, principled rules, we can at least make the injustice transient, while the longer-term issues are made reasonable and appropriate.

d/

--

  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net
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