Re: PROPOSED GUIDELINE: balance

[Brian E Carpenter <brian@hursley.ibm.com>]

I can't reply without the p-word; like it or not the IAB in particular
does have a degree of political visibility and I can assure you that
the absence or presence of non-N-American members *is* noticed, outside
N America. But in general, if the IAB doesn't have a variety of perspectives 
on board, it will miss things about the Internet at large. This isn't about
tokenism; it's about breadth of view. And my point is only that international
balance is just one of the issues the NomCom should consider. Or to put it
another way, skill & experience in international aspects of the Internet
is one of the types of expertise to be considered.

(I consider that having spent a number of years sitting at the wrong end
of a long thin pipe under the Atlantic was one of my own qualifications 
for joining the IAB.)

   Brian

Eric Brunner-Williams in Portland Maine wrote:
> 
> Brian,
> 
> What _is_ the issue? Continent of residency?
> 
> When I look, with all the limitations of my own eyes, at the people who have
> made policy in the IAB and IESG in the problem domain of character sets, and
> memory-aligned fundamental types, I just don't see a lot of expertise.
> 
> We study flow symmetry, but we appear to believe that our practice either
> isn't simularity-encouraging, or that it isn't a problem because in principle
> it isn't a problem. [insert sunscreen here]
> 
> The v6 trampoline code had the comment /* You are not expected to understand
> this.*/  I clearly don't understand the international question, if it can be
> answered by substituting one bunch of nationals by another bunch of nationals.
> 
> I don't care about musical chairs. I do care about expertise. Of course, the
> problem area could be out of scope, or I could be completely mistaken. I've
> heard both points of view expressed.
> 
> Please consider responding without using the keyword "politics", just treat
> this as if we'd just discovered that we'd limited transport or applications
> clue, nothing scarrier, and that there may be more to this detail (thanks kre)
> than second guessing some other standards body. Using "fiddlesticks" is fine.
> 
> Eric
> 
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-- 
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Brian E Carpenter 
Distinguished Engineer, Internet Standards & Technology, IBM 
On assignment at the IBM Zurich Laboratory, Switzerland
Board Chairman, Internet Society http://www.isoc.org
INET 2002, Washington, DC, 18-21 June http://www.inet2002.org