I'm not sure I have enough data to evaluate the comments in this letter. I
don't disagree with the general goal "diversity is good". I do believe that
the proposed actions are not realistic in that they would tend to make the
Nomcom process even more moribund. I will note that Appendix A suggests, but
does not require the Nomcom to consider diversity in the appointment of IAB
members (and doing diversity on a company basis can sometimes fight with doing
diversity on a minority, gender or geographic basis).
But I have a more fundamental set of questions with respect to the data on
trend stated by the letter - that we're becoming less diverse.
1) Is there a "statistically significant" difference in the composition of the
set of the working group chairs and the set of the members of the IESG and IAB
taken together for the 10 years mentioned? It was pointed out to me that it
is pretty much a hard requirement that members of those bodies have previous
experience as a WG chair, so THAT is the set with which the IESG and IAB
membership should be compared, not the IETF as a whole.
2) Of the people who signed this letter
a) Who have been working group chairs?
b) Who would be willing to volunteer for
i) the Nomcom
ii) the IAB
iii) the IESG?
c) Whose employers (or other supporting organization) would be willing to
support their participation in
i) the Nomcom
ii) the IAB
iii) the IESG?
3) Same set of questions for the IETF as a whole. I'd really like to get an
understanding of the size and composition of the intersection of the set of
current/past WG chairs and the set of "my employer will support me doing the
IESG job".
I've had a few conversations on this topic already at the current meeting and
at least three conversations went: "I don't have time (or support) for the
IESG, but I really think I could be an asset to the IAB". E.g. the IESG takes
significantly more time than the IESG.
My take is that a) WG chair and b) employer support are the two objective
criteria in the Nomcom process.
I would hesitate to eliminate the "must have been a WG chair" as criteria as
its one of the few internal-to-the-IETF opportunities to observe or evaluate
candidate abilities. But then we need to figure out if we're doing what we can
to diversify the WG chairs without adversely affecting the WGs.
For employer support - we're either stuck with the current situation, or we
shrink the job to increase the number of people (and employers) willing to do
the job, or we figure out how to get third party support for given positions.
Unless and until we do this, we have to live with the set of candidates for
things like the IESG being a lot smaller than the IETF as a whole.
What ever we come up with, I'd really like it to be actionable and objective.
Mike
At 06:22 AM 3/10/2013, IETF Diversity wrote:
>The letter below was sent to the IESG, the IAB, the IAOC and the ISOC Board
>this morning, in an attempt to open a discussion of how to increase the
>diversity of the IETF Leadership. We are sharing the letter here to encourage
>community discussion of this important topic.
>
>If you support this letter and would like to be added as a signatory, please
>send e-mail to <mailto:ietf.divers...@gmail.com>ietf.divers...@gmail.com, and
>your name will be added to the list of signatures.
>
>---
>
>** An Open Letter to the IESG, the IAB, the IAOC and the ISOC Board **
>
>Dear Members of the IETF Leadership,
>
>We would like to call your attention to an issue that weakens the
>IETF's decision-making process and calls into question the
>legitimacy of the IETF as an International Standards Development
>Organization: the lack of diversity of the IETF leadership.
>
>In addition to the moral and social issues involved, diversity of
>leadership across several axes (race, geographic location, gender
>and corporate affiliation) is important for three practical reasons:
>
> - It is a well-established fact that diverse groups are smarter
> and make better decisions than less-diverse groups.
>
> - Lack of diversity in our leadership becomes a self-perpetuating
> problem, because people who are not represented in the IETF
> leadership are less likely to dedicate their time and effort to
> the IETF.
>
> - The lack of diversity in the IETF leadership undermines our
> credibility and challenges our legitimacy as an International
> Standards Development Organization.
>
>Unfortunately, despite a substantial increase in the number of IETF
>leadership positions (from 25 to 32) and increasingly diverse
>attendance at IETF meetings, the diversity of the IETF leadership has
>not improved. In fact, it seems to have dropped significantly over
>the past ten years.
>
>For example, ten years ago, in February of 2003, there were 25 members
>of the IETF leadership (12 IAB members and 13 IESG members). Of those
>25 members, there was one member of non-European descent, there was one
>member from a country outside of North America or Europe, and there were
>four women. There were 23 companies represented in the IETF leadership
>(out of a total of 25 seats).
>
>In February of 2013, there were 32 members of the IETF leadership
>(12 IAB members, 15 IESG members and 5 IAOC members). Of those 32
>members, there was one member of non-European descent, there were no
>members from countries outside of North America or Europe, and there
>was only one woman. There were only 19 companies represented (out of
>a total of 32 seats).
>
>It is important to the continued relevance and success of the IETF
>that we address this issue and eliminate whatever factors are
>contributing to the lack of diversity in our leadership. We believe
>that this is an important and urgent issue that requires your
>immediate attention.
>
>There are several steps that could be taken, in the short-term within
>our existing BCPs, to address this problem:
>
> - Each of the IETF leadership bodies (the IESG, IAB and IAOC)
> could update the qualifications that they submit to the
> Nominations Committee (through the IAD) to make it clear that
> the Nominations Committee should actively seek to increase the
> diversity of that body in terms of race, geographic location,
> gender and corporate affiliation.
>
> - Each of the confirming bodies (the ISOC Board for the IAB, the
> IAB for the IESG, and the IESG for the IAOC) could make a
> public statement at the beginning of each year's nominations
> process that they will not confirm a slate unless it
> contributes to increased diversity within the IETF leadership,
> or it is accompanied by a detailed explanation of what
> steps were taken to select a more diverse slate and why it was
> not possible to do so.
>
> - The ISOC President could continue to select Nominations
> Committee Chairs who understand the value of diversity and are
> committed to increasing the diversity of the IETF.
>
> - The Nominations Committee could be offered resources or
> training on the value of diversity, techniques to recruit a
> more diverse candidate pool, and/or information about how to
> minimize conflict-of-interest and personal bias in their
> selection process.
>
>We also feel that more substantial and longer-term changes may be
>needed to fully address this issue. Therefore, we request that the
>new IETF Chair assemble a design team (with diverse membership, of
>course) to determine the causes of this problem and to make
>suggestions for longer-term solutions to be considered by the IETF.
>
>We are committed to working within the IETF to make the changes
>that are needed to correct this serious issue.
>
>Best Regards,
>
>(In alphabetical order)
>
>Bernard Aboba
>Cathy Aronson
>Alia Atlas
>Mary Barnes
>Mohamed Boucadair
>Brian Carpenter
>Stuart Cheshire
>Alissa Cooper
>Spencer Dawkins
>Roni Even
>Janet Gunn
>Stephen Hanna
>Ted Hardie
>Sam Hartman
>Fangwei Hu
>Geoff Huston
>Christian Jacquenet
>Mirjam Kuehne
>Olaf Kolkman
>Suresh Krishnan
>Barry Leiba
>Ted Lemon
>Kepeng Li
>Dapeng Liu
>Allison Mankin
>Bill Manning
>Kathleen Moriarty
>Monique Morrow
>Nurani Nimpuno
>Matt Nottingham
>Erik Nordmark
>Karen O'Donoghue
>Iuniana Oprescu
>Jaqueline Queiroz
>Hosnieh Rafiee
>Pete Resnick
>Lea Roberts
>Simon Pietro Romano
>Peter Saint-Andre
>Eve Schooler
>Rifaat Shekh-Yusef
>Larissa Shapiro
>Melinda Shore
>Barbara Stark
>Brian Trammel
>Tina Tsou
>Justin Uberti
>Margaret Wasserman
>Renee Wilson-Burstein
>James Woodyatt
>Lucy Yong
>Jessica Yu
>Lixia Zhang
