WG Chairs and Section 2.4 of draft-ietf-problem-statement-00.txt

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand]

--On fredag, februar 28, 2003 12:06:55 +0100 Brian E Carpenter 
<brian at hursley.ibm.com> wrote:

>> 2.4 Authority and Influence in the IETF are concentrated in too few
>>     hands
>
> I think this heading, and the whole section, is somewhat off base.

The section continues:

   It appears that both authority and influence in the IETF are
   concentrated in too few hands, and those with authority (primarily
   the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)) are insufficiently
   accountable for some of their actions.

I'm worried about another implicit statement in this section....
When you read it, it seems that power and influence is equated to "being on 
the IESG" (formal power) + "being and oldtimer" (informal power).

If working group chairs don't think that they have power and influence, 
that's a problem worth mentioning explicitly.

If working group chairs are chosen from the "oldtimers" too much of the 
time, that's a problem worth mentioning explicitly.

And if WG chairs do hold (and exercise) power and influence, that needs to 
be acknowledged.

(personally, I think a WG Chair has a lot of power, and in many cases need 
to be less bashful about using it....)

                   Harald