Re: [Banana] Reaching Consensus on Problem Statement

[Margaret Cullen <[e-mail]>]

> On Feb 3, 2017, at 11:54 AM, Mirja Kühlewind <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I do agree, but…
> 
> 
>> Am 03.02.2017 um 16:57 schrieb Margaret Cullen <[e-mail]>:
>> 
>> Hi Mirja,
>> 
>>> Also having an agreement for the problem is of course the first step. Howeve,r my understanding from the BoF was that there are already quite a bunch of people working on different solutions. So what’s really needed is agreement on the solution (and if there is one for all or different things or multiple solutions  are needed). Only if there is a first proposal for one (or more?) protocol(s) that this group would work on, it makes sense to think about chartering.
>> 
>> I agree that we also need to reach consensus, as a group, on how to move forward on one or more solutions, but I don’t think we can move forward on solutions until we have:
>> 
>> - Consensus that we have a well-understood problem statement, and
> 
> I had the feeling there was already a good understanding of the problem in the BoF.

Sadly, when we asked the question at the BOF “Is the problem statement well-understood?”, quite a few people said that they did not understand it.  I was frustrated with this, because the problem has been well-understood on our mailing list, and in side meetings for quite a while, and I don’t know what it is that people at the BOF found hard to understand about it.  Suresh indicated, though, that he wanted us to get agreement on the list that we have a well-understood problem statement, so that is what I am trying to do.

I do sort of feel like the best way to stop work in the IETF would be to pack a BOF with high school students who are willing to raise their hands and say that they don’t understand the problem…  There were lots of people there who did say that they understood the problem, but because we did not have consensus that the problem was well-understood by everyone in the room, we couldn’t ask the people who do understand the problem whether they think we should work on it in the IETF, or what approach we should take to solve it.

I’m hopeful that if we can get agreement on a well-understood problems statement here on the list, we can ask those questions here, within an open group of people who actually care about this problem, and move ahead.

Margaret