Hi Eric,
At 02:11 AM 20-08-2020, Eric Vyncke (evyncke) wrote:
Thank you for the interaction but I have to reply :-)
Especially around "... most Area Directors do not participate in
ietf@ discussions..."; my AD job takes 50+% of my time and I have a
day job on the top of it of course... So, it is not really easy to
read all emails on the top; I only read about 10% of them,
especially the first ones in a thread. Sorry, I am just a human
being and I wish that there were better ways to stay connected. And,
I know that my AD peers do the same, trying to get a feeling of the
community. BTW, I personally prefer open mike sessions to this list
as it is easy to forget that human being(s) behind an email address
while on a virtual plenary you 'see' the human beings.
About "when Area Directors decide what they believe is right without
being accountable for their decisions", I am afraid that I disagree
at least when an AD takes a decision on his/her own (like a DISCUSS
or a YES in a review). I tend to agree with you when the whole IESG
takes a decision as it is a group decision.
Sometimes people come to my region and make fancy speeches. Some of
those people invoke the name of the IETF in their speeches. I listen
to them attentively. Most, if not all, of those speakers do not have
a presence on this mailing list. On a few occasions people ask me
what I think about one of those speeches. This is where I explain a
few things which I have learned over the years.
There are advantages, as you mentioned, for mic presence, e.g. verbal
communication conveys cues which we cannot pick from an email message.
It is time-consuming to read mailing lists. At some point it does
not make sense to do that unless the person can make money out of
that activity. A few days ago, I had a conversation about mailing
lists. The person was reluctant to engage on mailing lists as people
only wanted to read comments which suit what they are advocating
for. In the above, you mentioned the time constraints in setting
time aside for this mailing list. I haven't been reading this
mailing list on a regular basis as I also face some time
constraints. I don't send messages partly because of the time
constraints and partly because of the censorship
regime. Furthermore, it makes economic sense to limit the export of
indigenous IPR.
The point on which you and I disagree is about consultation. I once
did a consultation (unrelated to the IETF) which received a low
feedback. Although I believed that what was being proposed was
right, I did not advocate strongly for the proposal because of the
lack of feedback. The rationale for that is based on a
UNDP-sponsored study which highlighted a policy-making failure. The
last point which you made is about group decision-making. In
general, it is better to stick to that.
Regards,
S, Moonesamy
