Re: Excessive use of interim meetings

[Keith Moore <[e-mail]>]

On 2/17/20 12:03 PM, Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:

> Many things Internet have scaled. The IETF ain't one of them. Some 
> people are still insisting that it work in the same way as 25 years 
> ago. How can that make sense.

Just because IETF has changed doesn't mean it has improved. It's not 
that people want IETF to work exactly as it did 25 years ago, but there 
were some things done 25 years ago that make more sense, even under 
today's conditions, than some of the things that IETF does today.

You are correct to point out that conditions have changed, but it's 
important to recognize _how_ conditions have changed.

What I see is that IETF is trying to do far more today (broader range of 
topics covered by WGs, WGs more siloed, WGs more likely to act at cross 
purposes with one another, more RFCs produced), with fewer active 
participants overall than we had 25 years ago. (Even if some WGs have a 
great many participants and that makes work difficult for those WGs.)

When IETF conducts its business in a way to discourage diversity and 
discourage input, I see that as contributing to those problems.

The point of looking at past practice is not to say "we should do 
everything exactly like we did 25 years ago" (because conditions have 
indeed changed) but rather "we have reason to believe, based on past 
experience, that it's possible to do better".

Keith

p.s. one way that IETF could do better is not to attack people for 
pointing out problems and suggesting ways to improve things.