Re: voting system for future venues?

On 8/24/11 3:55 PM, Dave CROCKER wrote:

> Sorry, but the vote on Quebec City, and the recent, follow-on 
> commentary are far more substantial and proportionally dominant than a 
> "vocal minority".
On 8/24/11 4:48 PM, Eric Burger wrote:

> Just a reminder, the community VOTED for Quebec City.
>
> Backing up Dave here, the community repeatedly VOTES or, in 
> post-meeting surveys, INDICATES (VOTES) for the sort of venues we have 
> been booking.
OK, what follows is based on precisely one data point (i.e., me), but I 
hope you will see that it is therefore as worthy as these two claims 
about the community having "voted for Quebec City".
I pondered long and hard when I answered that stupid survey question. 
Because what it asked me was, "Which would you prefer, Vancouver, 
Quebec, or <I think one other North American place I can't remember>?" 
And I, stupidly apparently, answered Quebec. And it was stupid because I 
didn't think you were actually going to count as you apparently did. You 
see, I answered Quebec because (a) I like Quebec as cities go; (b) it 
happens to be a shorter physical trip for me than Vancouver; and (c) I 
happen to work for one of those companies who pays my bills, so I really 
don't care what the relative prices of hotels are.
But you never asked the question that I would have answered quite 
differently: "Which place is the most logical for the IETF to meet?" 
Because had you asked that, I surely would have chosen Vancouver over 
Quebec. It's a crapload easier for most folks to get to, they have 
facilities that have worked well for us in the past, and *I don't object 
to going to Vancouver over Quebec*. You see, if you start asking for 
objections as opposed to desires, I think you'll get much different 
answers. You'd certainly hear about objections to certain travel 
itineraries. You certainly hear objections to total cost profiles. 
Because the community is now weighted in favor of folks with corporate 
travel budgets, I suspect the "desire" answers are going to be much 
different than the "objections" answers.
Now, like I said, one data point. Maybe the vast majority of people not 
only wanted to go to Quebec, but thought it was the right place to go 
and would have objected to a choice of Vancouver over Quebec. But I 
don't think you are justified in claiming that without some additional 
data. And either way, I don't think "Where do you want to meet?" is the 
right question to ask.
There are a host of reasons that voting is a stupid decision making 
process. I thought we knew that.
pr

--
Pete Resnick<http://www.qualcomm.com/~presnick/>
Qualcomm Incorporated - Direct phone: (858)651-4478, Fax: (858)651-1102

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