Internet DRAFT - draft-carpenter-nomcom2020-letter
draft-carpenter-nomcom2020-letter
None B.E. Carpenter
Internet-Draft Univ. of Auckland
Intended status: Informational September 11, 2020
Expires: March 15, 2021
Open Letter to the 2020-21 IETF Nominating Committee
draft-carpenter-nomcom2020-letter-00
Abstract
This is a personal open letter to the IETF Nominating Committee for
2020-21.
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on March 15, 2021.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components
extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text
as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.
Carpenter Expires March 15, 2021 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft Letter to 2020 NomCom September 2020
Table of Contents
1. Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1. Letter
Dear NomCom members,
Thank you for serving on NomCom. It's not an easy task.
This is an open letter. These are general remarks intentionally
exposed to the whole IETF community, by posting as an I-D. I do not
intend to update this I-D, although of course community comments are
welcome.
The IETF is at a critical moment. Various pressures have been
building up for several years. They have been made worse by COVID-
19, since face-to-face contact reduces misunderstandings. Clearly,
change is needed. You are therefore possibly the most important
NomCom since the first one in 1992.
We should not blame the individuals currently in service for the
pressures that have arisen. Everybody has tried to do their best.
But nevertheless, your choices for the empty seats in March 2021
matter a lot.
Of course, we need technical experts. The IETF will no longer be the
IETF if you appoint people to the IESG and IAB who are not highly
competent engineers. But in addition, we need people with a deep
understanding of and belief in the IETF's approach to standards-
making. We need people who believe in rough consensus as the best
way to make effective standards, who will never use their leadership
position to bias the consensus, yet will use their technical skills
to achieve the best possible result. They must be open to change,
and also act as agents of change themsleves. And of course, they
must leave loyalty to their own employers at the door. If this
sounds like an impossible target, that's because it is, but we must
try.
A specific problem I have noticed in recent years is that the barrier
for Proposed Standard publication has been pushed ever higher. Often
this is due to IESG "DISCUSS" positions that arguably breach the
IESG's own criteria for a DISCUSS, and that do not correspond to the
RFC2026 definition of Proposed Standard:
Carpenter Expires March 15, 2021 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft Letter to 2020 NomCom September 2020
"A Proposed Standard specification is generally stable, has resolved
known design choices, is believed to be well-understood, has received
significant community review, and appears to enjoy enough community
interest to be considered valuable. However, further experience
might result in a change or even retraction of the specification
before it advances."
In other words, a PS must be good enough, but not perfect. A PS
might contain errors and might fail. It is important that all IESG
members understand and practice this. If not, IETF progress is
severely slowed down; to get running code, we need rough consensus,
not perfection.
Another general problem I have sometimes noticed among IESG and IAB
members is a failure to treat their roles as servants of the
community and its consensus, but rather to behave as if they are in
charge. I don't want to give specific examples, because that might
seem to point at individuals, and that is not my goal. But it's
important that (however the outside world views their roles) they
remember every day that they are the servants and the community is in
charge.
It's very hard work being an IESG member, and demanding work to be an
IAB member. The community should be grateful that there are always
people willing to take on these roles. However, I urge NomCom to
carefully verify that all the nominees understand their roles, and
that they are motivated to change and improve the IETF.
Best wishes for your work, and again, thank you.
Brian Carpenter
2. Security Considerations
Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
3. IANA Considerations
This document makes no request of IANA.
Author's Address
Carpenter Expires March 15, 2021 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft Letter to 2020 NomCom September 2020
Brian E. Carpenter
The University of Auckland
School of Computer Science
PB 92019
Auckland 1142
New Zealand
Email: brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com
Carpenter Expires March 15, 2021 [Page 4]
