On Jun 17, 2008, at 5:37 PM, Jonathan Rosenberg wrote:

> I agree with Mary - this seems like its just moving work around.
>
> To reiterate the mantra of SIPPING itself - what PROBLEM are you  
> trying to solve Dean? Is it that there is not enough people to do  
> the work? As Mary points out, your suggestion only makes it worse.  
> Is it to get more meeting slots? Is it to better align IETF work  
> with the needs of the actual marketplace?


The problem that I'm trying to solve is making the task space  
manageable.

The first thing is to distribute the chair load. Everybody says "The  
problem isn't the chairs, it;s the lack of reviewers". Well, everybody  
but the chairs say that, actually. If you look at the current status  
from the beginning of this thread, you'll see that Keith and I are the  
long poles in the SIP tent.  Sometimes stuff waits a year for us to  
finish the proto writeup -- usually because when we get to doing the  
writeup, we find a bajillion errors the reviewers and authors missed.  
I typically see drafts revved at least twice during the writeup cycle,  
and that's a heck of a lot of work on the part of the chairs!

The second problem is "learning to say no". I think WGs should have  
very narrowly defined charters and that it should be very, very  
difficult to add substantial new work to a charter. That is, it should  
be nearly as difficult to add work to a WG as it is to form up a new  
WG, and that often, the correct answer actually is "form a new WG".  
Perhaps even more often, the correct answer is "no".

I think developing a SIP extension should be a Big Thing. If it's  
important enough to develop a SIP extension for, it is probably  
important enough to charter a working group to develop that extension.  
It's a Really Bad Idea to have a standing working group that sits  
around and develops SIP extensions. All that gets us is a whole lot of  
extensions. It doesn't get us any closer to a draft standard.

Working groups shouldn't last ten years. Only in rare circumstances  
should they last two years, and the average should be more like one  
year.

The key result of this sort of reorg is that a WG, and most especially  
the chairs of that WG, can be narrowly focused on a small and  
manageable set of deliverables. We should give them the luxury of  
doing one job and doing it well. Chairs should be able to do a real  
day-to-day job and run a working group on the side. I can tell you,  
SIP doesn't work that way now! Even the lousy job I do requires at  
least 50% of my working time, and that's going to break the bank  
eventually.

--
Dean

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