Re: Qualitative Analysis of IETF and IESG trends (Re: Measuring IETF and IESG trends)

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Jari,

Thanks.  Some thoughts inline:

On 6/25/2008 11:30 AM, Jari Arkko wrote:
Lakshminath,

Better understanding of the type of behaviors in this space would certainly be useful. And I don't want to disagree with your assessment of the behaviors; many of them sound like something that appears in practice. In particular, the shepherds are far less involved in the Discuss resolutions than the authors. And we do not involve the WGs as much as we should. I think writing guidelines on what the role of the various persons in the process is would be very useful. And obviously we should start by better following of the existing documents, like the Proto Shepherd RFC or the Discuss criteria document.

Of course. I will try and see if I can put something of an initial draft coherently.


However, with regards to blocking consensus of a WG, please remember that the WG is not necessarily the only place where consensus is tested. I recently had a case which had significant IETF Last Call discussion. I held a Discuss to ensure that the (fairly clear, IMO) conclusion from the discussion would be taken into the document. It did eventually, but only after significant back-and-forth with the authors. Overriding the original WG consensus? Yes. Right thing to do? I think so, not only was it right technically but it was something backed up by the Last Call. Did we get the details right, did the text go too far or did it fall short? I don't know, its a judgment call. The end result was somewhere between the LC guidance and authors' opinions. Painful for the WG? Sure.


So, here is where I am probably confused as to how consensus is determined. I understand that the documents are eventually "IETF Consensus" with the IESG determining what the consensus is. The sponsoring AD has the overall view of any given document better than anyone else, at least in the authoritative role (for this discussion, I am just considering WG documents).

Consider a hypothetical case: a large WG has strong consensus on one of their documents, they believe it is within the charter's scope and think that the document is in the best interest of the Internet. The WG chairs assess the consensus, and forward the document to the shepherding AD. The shepherding AD takes one last look, determines everything is in order and sends it to last call. A few people on the IETF Discussion list think that the proposed specification is about to doom the Internet. A few others who have not even read the document agree based on emails. Most of the WG members are either not on the IETF list or choose to stay silent.

The shepherding AD considers those comments, thinks that those issues have been addressed already and puts the document on the IESG agenda. All other ADs (except one) think that everything is fine and vote No Objection. One AD agrees with the few people on the IETF Discussion list and decides to put a DISCUSS and proceeds to hack the document. In the current model, other than the very few exceptions cited recently, the AD gets what he or she wants for the most part. It is plausible that AD may do this even if no one else identified a problem.

Responding to Brian here: Note that I am not pointing fingers at IESG alone, but yes, I am pointing fingers at our process in that the hypothetical situation described above is "allowed" to happen at the moment. Brian suggests "external" factors, but I am sorry I am not convinced. If there are WGs that have forgotten the IETF's mission, it is one of the primary roles of the ADs and the IESG to steer those WGs in the right direction. If our technology is becoming harder and more complex, it calls for involving more people and increasing transparency and not the other way around.

On text that comes from the IESG: this is more common in recent years than it was before. I am one of the ADs who tends to do that, both for the documents that I sponsor and for resolving my Discusses. But I would rather not do it. But I often end up doing it if there is no progress otherwise; I want to get my sponsored documents approved and I want to reduce the list of my outstanding Discusses. If I can help my authors by proposing text, I will do it.

Jari, as I have noted before, if the status quo is considered the best way forward, I would rather you continue to propose text. I as an author and document shepherd have appreciated that compared to the alternative. That alternative, the iterative guess work, takes forever.

But I would really like to see the document shepherds in active role here. Or at least the authors. The general guidance for authors whose document gets a Discuss is to first confirm whether the raised issue is a real one or not. If it is not, ask the Discuss to be cleared. Fight if needed! If it is real, work with your shepherd and WG to develop a proposal to fix the problem. Mail the proposal to the Discussing ADs in a timely manner. Address explicitly all components raised in a Discuss, either by explaining how they are not issues or providing a solution to resolve the issue.

What I am getting at is that the shepherding AD believes that the document is ready to move forward when he or she puts the document on the IESG agenda. He or she should make a decision about the DISCUSS:

1. Editorial changes are needed for clarification. Suggests an RFC Ed note that the rest of the IESG is okay with as well, sends a 1-wk call to the WG, and then sends approved announcement if there are no objections.

2. Technical changes are needed. The DISCUSS AD identified something everyone else missed or made a mistake about and the Shepherding AD (as well as the rest of the IESG) agrees with that assessment. This should be a big deal. The shepherding AD has been following the work for several years at some level (I understand the turnover in the AD position, but let's consider the general case) but still missed the issue that the DISCUSS AD identified after a quick read of the same document.

The Shepherding AD, document shepherd and the document authors understand the issue, prepare a short summary of the issue that every one agrees on, and a optionally possible solution and go back to the working group. Clearly, this has to be a new issue or an old issue with substantial new information that will presumably convince many people to change their minds. The process starts again.

3. No changes are needed. Work as quickly as possible to convince the DISCUSS AD to remove the DISCUSS using all means at his or her disposal. Note that this is not a discussion between two ADs at this stage in the process; the Shepherding AD represents years of work, and has considered most if not all of the information available. The DISCUSS AD comparatively has less information.

This avoids coming up with compromise text between just the authors and one or more DISCUSS ADs. There are many other people in the process and they have a huge say in how the document got to the shape it is in by the time it arrives at the IESG.

regards,
Lakshminath


Jari


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