On 4/17/13 2:21 PM, Dan Harkins wrote:
Look, bias stinks and when it exists its stench is detectable.
Dan, leaving aside all of your other comments for the moment (many of which are straw men that nobody but you have suggested, speaking of fallacies), this one comment is a serious problem since it is so demonstrably false. Bias creeps in in all sorts of undetectable ways; if it was always detectable, lots of statisticians and psychologists and survey designers would be out of jobs. Aside from simple methodological data collection problems, bias is often caused by completely unconscious (and sometimes well intentioned) behaviors when it comes to human endeavors. The literature on this topic is so extensive that I can't even imagine why you would even suggest the opposite.
We already know "who we are".
That's an interesting claim, and at least at first glance given other comments on the list, again seemingly false. As Adrian commented, perception is important. If it seems to some folks that the ratio of men to women throughout the IETF is 70:1, should it turn out that it is closer to 10:1 and the numbers in leadership are closer to 30:1, that would not only indicate that we don't "already know 'who we are'", but it could also be an interesting indication of why there might be statistical bias in the selection of leadership. (Or not. But it seems worthy of examination.)
That's my two message limit for the day on the IETF list. pr -- Pete Resnick<http://www.qualcomm.com/~presnick/> Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. - +1 (858)651-4478