My thoughts about the problems of the IETF

[Keith Moore]

> > But I've also seen WG chairs that abuse their power to push through 
> > their (employer's) agenda, and I'm pretty fed up with that. 
> 
> Just picking on one point here - usually, the bulk of the IETF
> participants use company email addresses - it is easy to work
> out people's affiliations.  However, lately, many people
> (including a high percentage of the IESG) are not using their
> employer's email addresses - this could possibly obscure 
> conflict of interests.  

there's no requirement to use an employer's email address.  after all,
we are acting as individuals rather than company representatives, and
it's certainly useful to separate IETF mail from "work" mail.  and some
people might be embarassed to advertise who pays their salaries...

of course it's useful and appropriate to disclose conflicts of interest,
and this can be done in a variety of ways - e.g. mail to a WG mailing
list.  When I was on IESG it was common for an IESG member to recuse
him/herself from decision-making and perhaps discussion when such a
conflict existed; this was generally noted in the minutes.

> This probably goes double for the IESG; I have heard a lot of
> 'black helicopter' theories about why IESG member X voted 
> in such a way ...

in my experience, lots of those theories come from people who cannot
imagine that there's actually a technical problem with their work, so
they'll invent any motivation they can think of.

Keith