Re: [wg-c] Election of co-chair

[Milton Mueller <mueller@syr.edu>]

Kent Crispin wrote:

> WGs do not produce policy.  They produce policy
> recommendations, and where there is significant dissent, they are
> *required* to report it.

This is a half-truth. Policy "production," like most forms of production, involves a
sequence of steps. The WG is the first and most crucial step in a particular
direction. The Names Council lacks the time and the specialized attention required
to formulate specific policies. As a practical matter it will rely heavily on the
decisions of the WGs. Otherwise, why have them? And there of course will be a sharp
qualitative difference between the "official" report and a "minority" report.

> It is also worth noting that IETF WGs are quite frequently intensly
> contentious, and sometimes do involve issues with large political or
> policy implications.

Those are superficial resemblances; the difference in process are more significant.
An IETF Working Group is formed from the bottom up. A bunch of people get together
to accomplish a task, and then try to convince an area director to accept their
charter. They define their own charter proposal and select their own chair and
operating procedures, schedules, etc. Disagreements happen, of course, but the basic
incentives are to achieve consensus and not to "win" at the expense of other WG
participants.

That is not the case here. We have exactly the opposite scenario. The WG Chair,
Charter, structure, and timetable were dictated to us by a preliminary Names
Council.

> >One of the good things about the IETF guidelines is that they assert the
> >autonomy of the committees, which means that this committee, if it adopted
> >those guidelines, would determine its own agenda, its own operating rules, and
> >select its own chair. Therefore it does not need the involuntary selection of a
> >Chair by the Names Council.
>
> The chair(s) must be specified in the charter, and the charter must
> be approved by the Area Directors.

But the Chair and the charter are proposed by the WG, on its own.

> Area Directors are perfectly free
> to suggest WG chairs that they deem acceptable.

We did not get a suggestion, we got a selection. As you well know.

--
m i l t o n   m u e l l e r // m u e l l e r @ s y r . e d u
syracuse university          http://istweb.syr.edu/~mueller/