"trouble maker"

Keith Moore moore at cs.utk.edu
Tue Jun 24 09:56:53 CEST 2003


> With that in mind, let me suggest revision to Keith's text:
> 
> Working groups can have trouble making forward progress, due to a lack
> of firm discussion management. This can be due to poor chair management,
> general lack of working group focus, or problematic participants.
> Section 3.3, "Session management", of RFC 2418, "IETF Working Group
> Guidelines and Procedures" provides a useful framework for managing this
> issue. Regardless of motivation or point-of-view, the failure of wg
> chairs and participants to work actively to to maintain productive focus
> and to move past specific topics appears to cause significant delays in
> working group output, and to harm the quality of the output.
> 

I almost agree, though I think it presumes the solution a bit too much - and
in a way that overly narrows the solution space.  And I also think it's a bit
of topic drift.

I do think these problems can be solved (and sometimes have been solved) by
firm discussion management.  But I also think we would do well to establish
procedures that the management can use to keep the group moving forward,
while still giving ample room for dissenting voices to be heard, their
views considered, and with the possibility of appeal if the dissenter believes
the group is making a serious technical error.


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