Time required to write down "wisdom" (Re: "Adult supervision")

[Margaret Wasserman]

Hi Thomas,

At 10:53 AM 5/13/2003 -0400, Thomas Narten wrote:
>I'm sure there are other examples. I think your point is right though
>that there is a document "management" function that we often don't pay
>sufficient attention to, and this does lead to long delayed documents.

This is related to the document editor function that I keep
discussing in various fora...  Each document should have an
editor who is managing the document, dealing with and resolving
issues, etc.

In some SDOs, this is a centralized (even paid) function.  But
in the IETF, we have a tendency to just assume that the original
author(s) of the document will serve in this function.  The defacto
editor may not understand what they are being asked/expected to
do, they have no training, no formal role definition, no tools
to help with the job, nothing...

>Oh, and note also that one also needs to deal with the situation where
>the author/reviewer can't agree, so that we don't get deadlock. This
>also can block documents for inappropriately long periods of time.

IMO, this is a WG chair function.  When the editor can't establish
agreement with a reviewer, the WG chair needs to determine what
WG consensus is on the issue.

Margaret