Re: Last Call: draft-dawkins-nomcom-openlist (NominatingCommittee Process: Open Disclosure of Willing Nominees) to BCP

[Thomas Narten <[e-mail]>]

"Spencer Dawkins" <[e-mail]> writes:

> Although 3777 doesn't use 2119 conventions (so I'm not introducing any 
> reliance on these conventions in my update, I believe the use of "may" in 
> the current text

>   <t>The list of nominees willing to be considered for positions under 
> review
>    in the current NomCom cycle is not confidential.
>    The NomCom may publish a list of names of nominees who are willing to be 
> considered
>    for positions under review to the community,
>    in order to obtain feedback from the community on these nominees.
>   </t>

I'll just observer that there is a spectrum between "confidential" and
"not confidential" and "public".

Saying "not confidential" may result in the list not actually being
published publically, but being a very open non-secret. I.e, for all
practical purposes, public even without being formally published (say)
on the nomcom page.

And, what about candidates for which the nomcom decides their name
should not be publically posted. Their names are not "confidential"
per the above and presumably anyone else (or the nomcom) can name
them. The end result may well be that there is no way not to have a
name be made public.

> > For allowing NomCom to suppress names ...
> > ... I judge the consensus to allow it.  That is, the community does not 
> > want to tie the NomCom hands as there may be cases where it is the right 
> > thing to do.

> This was not addressed in the current text. I'm adding

>   <t>The NomCom may choose not to include some names in the public list, if 
> this is the
>    right thing to do, in NomCom's opinion.
>   </t>

The "if this is the right thing to do" is asking for trouble, since
those words are more a statement of principle or morality than the
nomcom just deciding it has good reason not to publish a particular
name.

Can we please drop everything after the comma? (I'm not sure how to
reword it, since I think the only point that needs to be made is that
the nomcom as discretion not to publish names, for whatever reason.)

Thomas