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Re: consensus, was leader statements

2013-10-10 14:49:32
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Because we've got more than 120 working groups, thousands of
participants, and the internet is now part of the world's
communications infrastructure.  I don't like hierarchy but
I don't know how to scale up the organization without it.

There are largish organizations that work by consensus, notably Quaker
meetings and their regional and national organizations.  But we are
not like the Quakers.  For one thing, they have long standing
traditions of how consensus works, including a tradition of "standing
aside" and not blocking consensus if you disagee but see that most
people agree in good faith.  For another, they are very, very patient.
The meeting in Ithaca NY, near where I live, took ten years to decide
about getting their own meeting house rather than rented space.  

I don't see us as that disciplined or that patient (including myself,
I'm not a Quaker, but married to one.)

So it is a reasonable question how an organization like the IETF can
govern itself.  My inclination is to be careful in the choice of
leadership, and then trust the leaders to act reasonably.

R's,
John
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