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Re: A sort of council of elders for the internet

2013-11-10 20:11:14
Without changing the /authority/ of the AD to make appointments,
what about having the AD circulate a list of candidates to the
pre-wg mailing list and solicit comments.

I absolutely love this idea, and I think it would be a disaster.
There's a reason why nomcom comments are not made public.  And as an
AD, I can tell you that there are situations I can imagine (which
haven't yet come up) where I would absolutely _not_ want to follow the
preference of the community.  You could argue that such a situation is
dysfunctional and the working group ought not to be formed, and you
might be right, but I think you need to iterate on this idea a few
times before we get to where it's something that could actually be
done... :)

<aol>

i was looking for something i wrote a year++ ago describing the
differences between ietf nomination and chair appointment practices and
those of the rirs, icann, nanog, etc.  imiho, judging by results, the
ietf's is vastly superior.  the others are essentially beauty contests
which deliver a flat distribution from self-aggrandizing idiocy to the
occasional star.  

i don't think we can afford that.  while i suspect we could do things to
improve things (e.g. the iesg should not appoint bof chairs who are
chosen to kill the bof), i would ask that we be very careful screwing
with a system which, however arcane, produces results which are
distinctly better than the others we have.

randy