Re: SUMMARY: archiving of NOMCOM information

[John Morris <jmorris@cdt.org>]

At 2:27 PM -0400 4/10/02, Theodore Tso wrote:
> <snip>
>
> Ultiuamtely, though, the big question is how big of a threat do we
> think there is of someone trying to sue IETF or individual nomcom
> members in an effort to make nomcom records available to the public as
> part of a discovery process?  If we don't think it's very important,
> then let's not bother with all of this.  I personally think the
> downsides of having all of a particular year's nomcom records (e-mail,
> web-site with short lists, minutes of meetings, etc.) available as
> part of a public court record is such that spending a little bit of
> time to worry about this is worthwhile, but realistically the
> probabilities of this happening are (hopefully!) fairly low.

Not that this nuance is critical to our decision, but just because 
some lawsuit might be filed challenging a nomcom action does not mean 
that the confidential info would be made available to the entire 
public.  It is quite possible that confidential info would be 
disclosed to the lawsuit plaintiff(s) (and counsel) with a 
requirement that the info not be _further_ disclosed.

It does not seem that there is a huge amount of disagreement on the 
questions relating to archiving of nomcom info.  The basic decisions 
are:

1.  Should the nomcom be able to receive and create confidential 
info?  [Yes, at least no one has suggested otherwise]

2.  Should the confidential info be maintained for a period of time 
after the nomcom finishes its initial work?  [Yes, there appears to 
be consensus on this point]

3.  If "yes" to 2, then for how long?  [among the possible answers 
are (a) for x months or years, (b) until the next nomcom is convened, 
(c) for x months after the next nomcom is convened, (d) others?] 
(Personally, I'd suggest "for 3 months after the next nomcom is 
convened")

4.  If "yes" to 2, then who keeps the info?  [among the possible 
answers are (a) the Secretariat, (b) the nomcom chair, (c) the chair 
plus any other nomcom member who wants to hang onto the info, (d) 
others?]  (Personally, I'd suggest (a) or (b))

John

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John Morris // CDT // http://www.cdt.org/standards
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