On 2018-09-27 03:12, Melinda Shore wrote:
> On 9/26/18 7:48 AM, Riccardo Bernardini wrote:
>> I agree. Taking care of diversity is like trying to avoid offending
>> people: a good thing, but also a _very_ slippery slope. I think that
>> they require action in two directions: for doing the right thing (non
>> offending, promoting diversity) and contrasting any tentation to go too
>> far ("why whouldn't you purge the text of 'master/slave', it is almost
>> costless and make someone happy..." that's a slipeery slope...)
>
> I'm entirely unclear what "too far" means in this context, outside
> of your one example, but I would hope that it's generally understood
> that we're talking about a group of people responsible for guiding
> the work of the IETF. It's very much in the interest of the IETF
> producing work that's actually useful that the people guiding that
> work represent a range of experience/communities/areas of expertise/
> etc. Adding a reminder about that to NomCom guidance from the
> community seems entirely appropriate to me.
However, we'd better face an ugly truth, which is that if the
composition of the IETF as a whole isn't diverse, the NomCom will
not be able to do much with that guidance. So IMHO a serious approach
to diversity has to start at the input (who participates in the IETF),
not at the output (who is nominated for the leadership).
Brian
