OPEN ISSUE: Nomcom Process

Keith Moore moore at cs.utk.edu
Fri May 16 12:37:01 CEST 2003


> >We may also need to modify our Nomcom processes so that IETF
> >participants who are not part of the IETF leadership can have more
> >visibility into the Nomcom process and more proportional input into
> >leadership selection.  [OPEN ISSUE: Do we have consensus that these
> >are real problems that need to be solved?]
> 
> I believe that this is a real problem, and that we should
> modify our Nomcom processes to do two (related) things:
> 
>          - Give the community more visibility into the
>                  process.
>          - Get more feedback on potential candidates from
>                  the community.  Currently, some candidates
>                  are discussed with the leaders (IESG/IAB
>                  members and WG chairs), but the greater
>                  community doesn't even know who is being
>                  considered.

I think it's reasonable for nomcom to make public their selection
criteria, and perhaps even to invite public comment on them, as long as
it doesn't get to the point of discussing individual candidates (either
by name or by being too specific).

I am not sure whether it's reasonable for noncom to disclose the list of
parties under consideration.  On one hand it would invite wider public
feedback about specific individuals, which would help avoid unpleasant
surprises.  On the other hand it would expose would-be candidates to
potential "loss of face" at not being chosen - and invite comparison
to those who were chosen - even if the reason for that particular choice
turned out to be unrelated to the candidates' technical or personal
qualifications.

Keith


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