--On Tuesday, June 12, 2007 14:22 -0700 Ted Hardie <hardie@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
... That does not mean the IETF leadership is itself a meritocracy; it's not. The IESG and IAB are picked by NomComs for a variety of skills and "fit" is a critical one. Someone who can fit into the team the NomCom is building may be selected over someone who is equal or better in any or all of our technical disciplines, because of the need to balance skills, personalities, and time commitments. This last is a particularly important point, as the IETF is led, fundamentally, by people who have the will, time, and resources to dedicate to that effort. There will likely always be people who have more "merit" on some objective scale than those who are selected, but who cannot serve because they lack time or support. ...
Ted, while I agree with what you say above, it suggests two things to me:
(1) The best way to get a good fit, and an IESG that can work well together, is to be sure that the IESG is as homogeneous as possible, with all people having the same perspectives and opinions. On the other hand, if one wants maximum opportunity for, e.g., alternate sponsors for BOFs and documents should a given AD turn one down and for checks and balances more generally, it would be wise to have as much diversity on the IESG as possible... diversity that is not necessarily strongly correlated with harmony. We can only hope that Nomcoms understand that tradeoff and balance it very carefully.
(2) There has been a tendency in recent years for the scope and workload of the IESG to increase. Whether that trend is intentional or not, increases in IESG workload tend to reduce the number of people who will have the time, resources, and support to take on IESG positions. If the community wants maximum diversity, or maximum "merit" in those positions, it is very much in the community's interest to find ways to bring the workload down or at least to resist proposals and changes whose consequence is to increase the workload.
best, john _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf