Re: On harassment at IETF

["Dr. Pala" <[e-mail]>]

Hi Ross,

I understand your point of view and - on the surface, at least - it 
might appear like I am advocating for the same behavior that we are 
trying to prevent. I actually think that if you dig a little deeper, the 
two are very different. I am sorry about the fact that this may have 
come across very strong and lacking compassion - that was not my 
intention. I tend to be very strict when it comes to unjust behavior, 
and the fact that I do really care about this topic does not justify me 
being too harsh or suggest policies/solutions.

One very important aspect I would like to further explain is that in my 
message, in any way, I wanted to imply that people that have experienced 
this issue, should come forward if they do not feel like doing it (for 
absolutely ANY reason) - It is extremely difficult (and requires a lot 
of courage) to speak out. The first priority, I think, as a community, 
is to provide compassion and support to help the individuals to handle 
the situation. And maybe there could be means to allow who reports 
anything to be involved and have their saying about how to handle the 
situation - it could be that no official action is requested, but at 
least we might understand (in an anonymous form even) how widespread 
this issue is.

I do not have the answers - it is a very complex problem. However, as a 
Community I think we need to continue to work on this and strive for a 
safer and happier environment. We try and we might succeed or we might 
fail... and if the latter happens, we just look at why we failed, where 
we can improve, how we can provide a better support network - until we 
finally eradicate this fowl behavior. And if we fail again, we work 
together to improve again.

After all, if this is still going on, maybe we shall think about new 
ways to address this issue.

In my opinion, there is also the possibility for an even harder target. 
Although, I understand that we might not change the world in a day, but 
we could provide a model that could be brought back home to our 
companies and our communities around the world. We might not solve this 
problem around the world, but if we do not even try... what does it say 
about us ?

I thank everybody who replied and I hope this discussion inspired deep 
introspection in each and every one of us: awareness is not a solution, 
but, I think, a good start. Many good points have been raised, and I 
hope that the conversation will continue.

I would be happy to further explore solutions with the ombusteam 
(https://www.ietf.org/contact/ombudsteam/) - if there is an interest to 
continue the conversation in a more appropriate venue (now that, I 
think, we raised a bit the level of awareness in our great Community).

Cheers,
Max


On 3/30/19 1:43 AM, Ross Finlayson wrote:
> On the subject of “harassment” - I hope I’m not the only person who sees some irony here:
>
>> And if you are one the people that think this community will tolerate your behavior maybe because you are a well-known figure in the Industry, be sure of one thing: I will fight to make sure that (a) your behavior is publicly exposed, and (b) you get shamed and BANNED from IETF. The behavior, I think, should also be reported to the HR department of the organization that sent that individual for further actions.
-- 
Best Regards,
Massimiliano Pala, Ph.D.
OpenCA Labs Director
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