A new Request for Comments is now available in online RFC libraries.
RFC 7282
Title: On Consensus and Humming in the IETF
Author: P. Resnick
Status: Informational
Stream: IETF
Date: June 2014
Mailbox: presnick@qti.qualcomm.com
Pages: 19
Characters: 52339
Updates/Obsoletes/SeeAlso: None
I-D Tag: draft-resnick-on-consensus-07.txt
URL: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7282.txt
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 explains some features of rough consensus,
what is not rough consensus, how we have gotten away from it, how we
might think about it differently, and the things we can do in order
to really achieve rough consensus.
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.
INFORMATIONAL: This memo provides information for the Internet community.
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