Re: IETF Diversity Question on Berlin Registration?

[SM <[e-mail]>]

At 13:46 11-04-2013, Spencer Dawkins wrote:
>If the IAB means "members", the number for 
>females, as far as I know(*), is 2/15, or 13 
>percent. If it means voting members, the number 
>for females is 1/13, or just under 8 percent.

If I use the 13% I can say that the IAB is more 
"diverse" than the IAOC.  Some organizations use 
political arithmetic to look good.

At 13:21 11-04-2013, Ted Lemon wrote:
>With respect, this is sampling noise.  12.5% of 
>8 is 1.   Don't get me wrong—it's great that we 
>have some diversity on the IAOC, but I don't 
>think anybody should be patting themselves on the back just yet!

Yes.

At 13:09 11-04-2013, Yoav Nir wrote:
>I think skewed surveys are a worse basis for 
>planning policy than just using common sense 
>(yes, I know that's just another name for our 
>biases). Surveys lend a scientific aura to data 
>that is effectively non-representative.

Yes.

At 17:40 11-04-2013, Melinda Shore wrote:
>However.  The question that would answer (approximately)
>is whether or not there's bias in the nomcom process.
>
>My own feeling is that if we were to find that the
>numbers supported the notion that there's bias
>present in the system we probably couldn't do anything
>about it without tearing the organization apart, so,
>we live with bias, and trying to identify whether or
>not there's bias in the nomcom process would be something
>along the general lines of opening the gates of hell
>and we'd probably be better off not knowing for sure.

Yes.

The concern mentioned in the message from the 
IAOC is about diversity.  The definition I found for diversity is:

    "the condition of having or being composed of differing elements,
     the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different
     races or cultures) in a group"

Is that the definition the IAOC is using?

Regards,
-sm