Hi, Ted,
On Mon, Sep 2, 2019 at 5:18 PM Theodore Y. Ts'o <tytso@xxxxxxx> wrote:
[deleted down to]
I'll also add that it probably helped that I didn't hold another IETF
leadership role, since it never meant that there was any question of
any conflict of interest that I might be trying to "supervise" some
discussion that was, say, critical of the IESG as a body.
To the extent that Ben also serves an Security AD, regardless of
whether he is executing his role in good faith, when there comes a
time people are questioning decisions by the IETF leadership, it's
going to make it harder for him to fulfill his role as S-A-A. And
please note that I am not arguing that he *has* abused his role; just
that when faith in the IETF leadership might be lacking in some
quarters, there may very well be a perception of abuse ---
*especially* when trying to "manage" discussion might get perceived as
a way of shutting down criticism of IETF leadership.
Thanks for sending this as part of your note.
I have great respect for Ben Kaduk, based on talking with him weekly when we served together on the IESG, and I would have struggled to distinguish between "Ben the S-A-A" and "Ben the AD", no matter which hat he said he was wearing at any point in time. People who don't talk to Ben weekly would likely struggle more.
If, in the future, there is a desire to open up RFC 3005 for
improvements, one change which might be appropriate is a very strong
suggestion to maintain a greater separation of roles to minimize the
perception of conflicts of interest.
You're right, to point to the possible *perception* of conflict, no matter how careful a person serving in both roles is about disambiguating comments.
I think what we're looking at is something similar to the reason why I was asked to resign from the IAB when Nomcom selected me for the IESG - it's not that people might not be able to trust me in either role, it's that they honestly couldn't figure out what the relationship between what "Spencer the AD" was saying and what "Spencer the IAB member" was thinking, and replacing me on the IAB was a small price to pay, to avoid that confusion.
IMO, of course.
Spencer
