The IESG has approved the following document: - 'On Consensus and Humming in the IETF' (draft-resnick-on-consensus-07.txt) as Informational RFC This document has been reviewed in the IETF but is not the product of an IETF Working Group. The IESG contact person is Jari Arkko. A URL of this Internet Draft is: http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-resnick-on-consensus/ Technical Summary The IETF has had a long tradition of doing its technical work through a consensus process, taking into account the different views among IETF participants and coming to (at least rough) consensus on technical matters. In particular, the IETF is supposed not to be run by a "majority rule" philosophy. This is why we engage in rituals like "humming" instead of voting. However, more and more of our actions are now indistinguishable from voting, and quite often we are letting the majority win the day, without consideration of minority concerns. This document is a collection of thoughts on what rough consensus is, how we have gotten away from it, and the things we can do in order to really achieve rough consensus. Working Group Summary Note: This document is quite consciously being put forward as Informational. It does not propose to change any IETF processes and is therefore not a BCP. It is simply a collection of principles, hopefully around which the IETF can come to (at least rough) consensus. Document Quality Well-run IETF consensus processes have usually followed at least some of the elements recommended by this document. Personnel The Document Shepherd and Responsible Area Director is Jari Arkko.
