General comment on draft-ietf-problem-statement-00.txt

Jari Arkko jari.arkko at piuha.net
Mon Mar 3 16:39:47 CET 2003


Margaret Wasserman wrote:

> Replying to myself, again...  Hey, it's been a long
> night. :-)
> 
> One thing that makes me question how much real power
> and authority has been delegated to WG chairs is the
> fact that the "responsible AD" is always expected to
> be present when the WG meets.
> 
> When I've run groups in companies, I've often held
> meetings, even run major projects, without any
> direct supervision or intervention from my manager.
> But, that doesn't seem to be the case in the
> IETF.  Is there a reason for that?

I don't think this is exactly the same thing. My manager at
the company would be present on a major demonstration or
workshop; the AD is present in the WG meeting maybe six
hours per year. If my manager spent only six hours with
my major events, he'd have hundreds of direct subordinates,
or he'd be spending his time with no touch of reality ;-)

Luckily, IETF ADs spend time in the meetings, with
our documents, in e-mail discussions, and in conference
calls.

The point is that the ADs aren't managing the WGs on a
daily basis. (And yes, there should be more activity
in a WG than just meetings three times a year.)
And AD presence, participation != lack of trust to the
chair.

Anyway, this thread about the WG chair powers is
interesting... I missed the chair training due to a
conflict. I need to go check some document somewhere
for the powers I may have missed...

Jari



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