Re: Appointment of a Transport Area Director

[Eliot Lear <[e-mail]>]

Sam,

On 3/4/13 6:34 PM, Sam Hartman wrote:
> I actually think expecting ADs to learn a fair bit on the IESG is part
> of coming up to speed on the IESG.  I'm aware of people who served on
> the IESG with me who had significant gaps in material their area
> covered.  In some cases, this was solved by splitting work load.  In
> some cases it was covered by having the AD learn a lot.  In one case the
> AD came in having huge gaps in half of the area in question. Today that
> person is considered an expert in one of the areas where he had the
> largest gaps and is focusing most of his effort there.

We're here because of the extremely specialized nature of transport. 
PhDs who specialize in it have gotten it wrong.  One such person drove
Van Jacobson into the field, as I recall. There are very few people who
get it right.  And yet it's so close to the waist of the hour glass that
it's critical to get right.  Security has a lot of visibility and so it
will never have this very same problem.

>
>
> IESG-level review of a document really is a skill that can be
> learned. It helps to have a lot to draw on, but I don't believe anyone
> can (or does) have coverage of all the areas they are reviewing. The
> huge part of the skill is to figure out how to do the technical job even
> given that.
> It involves trusting others sometimes, reading discussions, learning new
> things. Sometimes though, you do just have to spend the effort to
> understand some particular issue well enough to make an informed
> opinion.
>
> Having experts in areas doesn't escape this. When there's an appeal or a
> disagreement between areas it can be important for ADs to come up to
> speed on an issue outside their area and make an informed decision about
> it.
>
> So in conclusion, I strongly value technical contribution and
> demonstrated ability to pick up new knowledge in an AD. I do not highly
> value knowing all the things going on in a specific area at the time the
> AD joins the IESG.

Please let's not overgeneralize.  I'm not on the NOMCOM but I know it is
not every area we are having this problem, it's transport.

Eliot