--On Thursday, March 28, 2013 13:13 +0000 Stewart Bryant <stbryant@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > David > > In this particular case the candidate pool would have been > tiny, because the criteria would surely have included being > experienced with both the ITU process and the IETF liaison > process, including knowing and understanding the liaison > history. You might have added "and has access to the considerable time and travel resources needed to play in that particular pond", which would make the pool even smaller. > Therefore it seems unlikely that there would be any > candidate that the IAB did not already know about. So whilst I > agree in general, this is not a case that should raise any > concerns. While I agree that the pool is too limited to contribute significantly to diversity other than, perhaps, on gender or age grounds (at least the first is significant), the IAB's "already knowing about" who might be in that pool is different from the IAB assuming it knows who is available. The only way to get to the latter answer is to ask and, apparently, the question wasn't asked. In addition, IMO, there might have been a slight advantage in another sort of diversity. Given the long and difficult history between the IETF and ITU-T over MPLS-related issues, a perfect candidate might have had all of the attributes that Scott does but with little or no prior identification with MPLS work. The candidate pool with that collection of attributes might turn out to be empty or the tradeoffs might still have come out the same way, but we don't know. > Scott BTW is an excellent choice and is well qualified on all > of the above counts. I absolutely agree with this and I'm confident that he will do a fine job. What I, and I assume David, are questioning is simply the process that is used. For me, it seems especially odd when compared to the liaison position to the ICANN Board. Both are very important to the IETF community. Both involve organizations with which the IETF has a complicated and multidimensional relationship. Both involve issues that are very sensitive. Yet the IAB conducted an open call for volunteers, followed by an open call for community comments, for one position and simply announced the appointment for the other. I think an explanation of the difference would be helpful for everyone. best, john