Re: What I was trying to say in the plenary last week

[Matt Holdrege <matt.holdrege@verizon.net>]

At 10:26 AM 3/27/2002, Geoff Huston wrote:
> Brian Carpenter suggests:
>
> > publish the
> >list of nominees that the NomCom is considering seriously, so that
> >the entire community has the chance to comment (confidentially).
> >This will have some unpleasant side-effects (more mail for NomCom to
> >read, and no doubt some ad hominem attacks) but I think it will
> >increase transparency to the point where lack of confidence in
> >NomCom's judgement is much less likely.
>
> There are some very serious risks in this approach. How can you
> prevent the process becoming one of a pseudo popularity contest?
> Would this be wise? The current process is structured to assist the
> Nomcom to decide upon the best qualified individuals for each role,
> not necessarily the mostpopular, but the best available. And such
> an objective is entirely fit and proper within a culture that seeks
> technical excellence in its outcomes.

Through various steps in the process, we are already implicitly assuming 
the nomcom will sift through the facts and innuendos when choosing 
candidates. Each fact, lie and rumor are simply data points that the nomcom 
must deal with. So by making the candidate list public, we aren't really 
changing anything fundamental. We are simply opening up the pool of 
comments. Some of the comments are good, some are not. That is the case 
today and would continue to be the case under Brian's suggestion.

> Your message appears to follow the line of reasoning that, on the
> assumption that the Nomcom is somehow untrustworthy, forcing the
> process into a public parading of candidates will, somehow, correct
> this. I find the assumption somewhat difficult to understand
> and the proposed solution one that will inevitably amplify divisions
> within the IETF, rather than assist in supporting a common
> endeavour.

All humans are untrustworthy to a degree, so any improvements to the 
process should be welcome. If we discover that the list of candidates for a 
given area consist of Moe, Larry and Curly, the community can respond in a 
corrective manner.