Hi Brian,
At 12:44 PM 25-02-2021, Brian E Carpenter wrote:
That is not a simple question with a simple answer. If the person (or
their employer) has a strong interest in the topic, they will invest
the time to follow the email discussions, understand what is going on
behind the apparent lack of progress, and decide how best to engage in
and influence the conversation. Anybody with much experience in complex
debates (whether or not in SDOs) will already know that things take
time (months or years). If the person has casual interest, they may
decide to leave the topic alone and check back a year later. Any
choice between those two extremes is possible, depending on the case.
I've certainly chosen many points on that scale during my time
at the IETF (and the Global Grid Forum when it existed, and minor
engagements with other SDOs).
My guess on a draft which I presented to GENDISPATCH was that it was
unlikely that it would be sponsored by the Responsible Area
Director. It was better, in my opinion, to get the so-called
"running code" experience on that.
In my opinion, whether it was a simple question or not depends on the
level of experience of the persons engaged in the exchange. The
debates are, in general, complex given the vested interests. I
remember a question which was asked in a session about the IETF which
was partially funded by an organization I am affiliated with. A
young woman from West Africa asked the speaker how he gets paid for
what he what he was doing. It was an awkward moment as there is an
expectation that people residing in Africa should not ask such a
question to a person who resides outside the region.
Certainly, if one is not patient, persistent and open to argument,
one will not succeed in the IETF, but that is nothing to do
with diversity and inclusiveness. How we (those already here)
treat newcomers is of course important, but that is a quite
different question from the one you asked.
The "open to argument" is actually related to diversity. In some
cultures direct confrontation is viewed as immature and unnecessary.
We already advise newcomers to watch the discussion for a while
before contributing [1]. Perhaps that advice should be strengthened.
The advice to newcomers is likely against IETF Consensus [1].
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
1. There was a discussion about "adults in the room".
