Dear Ray, Outcomes, good or bad, are often influenced by groups sharing a common interest. Important questions should attempt to measure whether these interests reflect those of the larger Internet communities. No gender, sexual orientation, ethic, religious, or political background should be excluded, but attempting to ascertain the breath and distribution of interests based on questions used to measure some possible selection bias based on distributions of aspects unrelated to the endeavors of the IETF seems unlikely to improve outcomes. When faced with some distraction from endeavors at hand, a friend of mine would exclaim "squirrel!" Regards, Douglas Otis On Apr 11, 2013, at 8:11 AM, Ray Pelletier <rpelletier@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > All > > The IETF is concerned about diversity. As good engineers, we would like > to attempt to measure diversity while working on addressing and increasing > it. To that end, we are considering adding some possibly sensitive > questions to the registration process, for example, gender. Of course, > they need not be answered and would be clearly labeled as optional. > > The IAOC would like to hear from the community on this proposal. It plans to > make a decision on its 18 April call in order to make the changes in time for the > Berlin registration and will consider all input received by 17 April. > > Thanks for your feedback. > > Ray > IAD >