RE: discussion style and respect

[Mikael Abrahamsson <[e-mail]>]

On Wed, 10 Jun 2015, Michael StJohns wrote:

> 1) Is my description of the IETF process reasonably close to reality? 
> E.g. does the consensus process contribute to "Standardization by 
> Combat"?

I don't know how much it contributes, but there is also widely differing 
ways of "doing business" in the IETF depending on what WG we're talking 
about, and what people populate it.

There are working groups where the mailing lists are basically silent 
apart from draft announcement postings and administrativa, everything else 
is done behind the scenes in private. Then there are groups where a lot of 
the discussions are done in public and basically "brainstorming" is done 
on the mailing list.

So it all depends on what your personal style is, if either of these fits 
you or not. I know people who refuse to participate in "let's brainstorm 
in front of the whiteboard" style of working, and prefer to go home and 
sit for a day and write document/presentation, to present their views.

We're always going to see friction between different personalities, 
cultures etc, and how they prefer to work and express themselves. We need 
to cater to all, so we need to find ways of working that doesn't exclude 
anyone. I tend to think that we do this, but we're never going to avoid 
having friction when all these people are interacting and have differing 
views, ways to express these views, and who often believe strongly in 
these views.

So I tend to think of the IETF consensus process the same way as 
democracy, it's bad, but all the other alternatives are worse, so let's 
try to work with what we've got and try to make the most of it.

-- 
Mikael Abrahamsson    email: [e-mail]