Re: [hrpc] HRPC recharter

[Melinda Shore <[e-mail]>]

On 1/4/23 8:54 AM, Bill Jouris wrote:
> I have to agree with Michael here.  To be effective, we have to address 
> our target audience on their own ground and in their own terms.  
> Otherwise, we are primarily talking to ourselves, which isn't what we want.

I'm actually not sure that's true ("isn't what we want").  It
is, after all, a research group, and researchers with domain
expertise talking with each other is exactly how research progresses.

That said, one of the chartered aims of the RG is:

"
    * To increase the awareness in both the human rights community and
      the technical community on the importance of the technical workings
      of the Internet and its impact on human rights.
"
(https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/charter-irtf-hrpc/)

So I think part of the issue with this discussion is lack of agreement
on who the "audience" is, and whether "audience" is the right thing to
be thinking about at all.  I think it's difficult to balance a research
focus with the sort of advocacy activities being argued here, especially
in the absence of broad consensus about policy questions, difficult
tradeoffs, etc., but maybe one of the things that can come out of this
rechartering discussion is a better sense of how folks want to balance
these somewhat incompatible interests.

Melinda

-- 
Melinda Shore
[e-mail]

Software longa, hardware brevis