On May 10, 2012, at 1:42 PM, Melinda Shore wrote:
On 5/10/12 9:32 AM, Martin Rex wrote:
There has never been a need to actively broadcast these massive amounts
of personally identifiable information (PII), and I haven't seen any
convincing rationale for doing it now.
To be honest, "I don't want to receive more spam" and "My boss might
find out I skipped a session" are not reasons not to be open about
who's participating in sessions, particularly as we drift towards a
meetings/voting model. I understand sensitivity about broadcasting
travel plans but in general some of the arguments being offered for
being a less open organization with a less open process are drifting
into "The FBI implanted a radio transmitter in my teeth" territory,
and it seems to me that making blue sheets available after meetings
does not reveal much PII beyond what's already available on the mailing
lists.
Oh dear, oh dear oh dear….
I've been trying hard to stay out of this discussion, but finally cannot
anymore…
I fully agree with Melinda here -- if you are active in the IETF (or even if
you aren't), you email address is already known to the spammers. Our lists, and
list archives are all public -- if you think that you are important enough that
spammers would download and OCR blue sheets to get your address, you are A: out
of touch with the current spam model and / or b: believe that you are much more
important than you really are...
If you are concerned that your bossman might figure out that you skipped a
session -- well, here's an idea, actually two:
1: work somewhere where you manager trusts you enough to do what's in the best
interests of the organization (and then do so) and / or
2: attend the friggin' sessions. Presumably you flew half way round the world
to participate, not to drink espressos in some new and exotic city.
For the record:
1: My email addresses are warren(_at_)kumari(_dot_)net,
wkumari(_at_)google(_dot_)com, wkumari(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com,
warren(_at_)snozzages(_dot_)com and ...
2: I was sitting in seat 3A in room 243 at 15:25 on TUESDAY, March 27, 2012. I
cannot remember what I was wearing, but it probably involved a t-shirt, sandals
and some kind of hat. When you invent a time machines and travel back, you
should be able to find me there..
3: I didn't attend a single session on Afternoon Session I, WEDNESDAY, March
28, 2012
(I feel that I have gotten much much rantier than intended, but, oh well…)
W
[0]: and mailman's super secure s/warren(_at_)kumari(_dot_)net/warren at
kumari.net/ was figured out a long time ago!
There's a serious question here about tradeoffs between privacy and
openness. Openness is not just a core institutional value (although
it is one - do not forget that), but it's also a defense against
charges of collusion, which, unfortunately, we've been seeing.
Melinda