On Thu, April 18, 2013 8:34 am, Carsten Bormann wrote:
On Apr 18, 2013, at 17:17, "Dan Harkins" <dharkins(_at_)lounge(_dot_)org>
wrote:
Why is this a problem?
I think you are more likely to ask this question if you think that if it
is a "problem", then we *have* to "solve" it, e.g. by shooting enough of
the white male people in the IETF that the numbers balance.
It is not that kind of "problem".
Well that's a relief! As a white male (I know, a surprise, right?) I'm
glad to know I am not going to get shot.
It is, however, a
situation that a
sizable part of the community have experience with.
I have been attended at least 40 IETFs over the past 18 years or so.
I certainly have experience with this situation. What is new, though,
is the statement that this situation is, in fact, a problem.
The
experience
that,
if you find ways to improve diversity where the cure is *not* worse than
the ailment, the quality of the work actually improves from that.
What is this "cure" of which you speak? This diversity discussion has
included statements like:
"If the intent is to emphasize diversity (for some metric) over one of
the core skills [technical clue, admin skills, ability to work with others],
that's certainly possible."
and,
"A small point to watch for, if there is a focus on a defined list of
groups [and there certainly appears to be one-- gender], is the
difference between discriminating /against/, versus ensuring
representation /from/."
So? Are we going to emphasize diversity over core skills? Say that
one's gender or skin color matters more than their technical clue or
their ability to work with others? By what method are we going to
"ensure" representation? And what do we do if these efforts have not
resulted in the proportions that are deemed to be acceptable? Use a
little more force? Quotas?
Nobody has stated what the "cure" is for this situation so we don't
know whether it will be worse than the ailment. There is a huge gap
between "encouraging more women to volunteer" and "shooting
white men". And I really don't think we need to count the gender
make-up of a meeting if our "cure" was going to something close
to "encouraging more women to volunteer."
regards,
Dan.