On Mon, 1 Oct 2018 at 21:31, John C Klensin <john-ietf@xxxxxxx> wrote:
That said, as Eliot and others have argued, what we really need
is diversity of perspectives. Some of the discussion seems to
be trending toward diversity among those factors that can easily
be measured and assessed quantitatively. I suggest that the
latter cluster of attributes are not a good surrogate for the
former.
Diversity of perspectives is more likely the more visible diversity is. Or perhaps it's only thought to be, but that is in itself a positive step.
It might seem crass to focus on diverse gender, sexuality, skin colour, nationality and so on. But if faced with a group obviously diverse in all those dimensions, people with differing viewpoints and perspectives are more likely to feel comfortable participating themselves.
On the other hand, if every participant, no matter how wonderfully diverse their perspectives may be, is a white male heterosexual American, that's surely going to make anyone who isn't feel an outlier - and probably an outsider.
Dave.
