On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 9:11 AM, Fernando Gont <fgont@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Or is it just that only some forms/expressions of diversity are desirable?
That's a fascinating question. All else being equal you might imagine that any group of people would give the earliest/most thought to the forms of diversity that are the most represented in that group, simply because it is more obvious to them. Thus, the IETF has had a geographic diversity policy for a long time, while other forms of diversity were represented less/later. At the other extreme, there may be forms of diversity that the IETF as a group is not even aware of due to lack of experience.
I found it interesting how one message mentioned, "gender, race, color, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender _expression_, or marital status", but didn't mention economic status, past visits (e.g., whether you've been to Syria) country of origin, non-religious ideological beliefs, food allergies, medical conditions, and other things that might cause us to exclude people.
I don't know how an organization can/should decide which forms of diversity to mandate/incentivize/encourage/accommodate and to what degree. In most cases the people who are most present in the IETF tend to think that democracy is the fairest way to make decisions, but sometimes arguments of the form "let's do what is best for the most people" are characterized as being "the tyranny of the majority". At the same time, pretty much any choice will result in excluding someone, so how do you make that choice?
Also, do we want to avoid a vocal minority being able to have more influence over the organization as a whole than a less vocal minority that is equally represented? Is the vocal minority more vocal because their concerns are more important than the less vocal minority, or because they are otherwise predisposed (culturally, or as a group, or because other groups are sympathetic to their case) to being more vocal? If that were the case, how would we even find out?
I don't know if anyone has satisfactory answers to the question above. I certainly don't, and I wish I did. There may be no answer that is satisfactory to everyone, which I suppose is the heart of the problem.