Re: [Pesci-discuss] principles for decision-making

On Tue, Nov 01, 2005 10:40:35AM -0500, Melinda Shore allegedly wrote:
> As we discussed briefly last week, I see decision-making in the IETF
> as both an ongoing problem and specifically as an impediment to making
> changes in response to the "problem" process.  I'm proposing a set
> of principles for IETF decision-making, although now that I look at
> them I'm not sure that they'll actually be useful for this particular
> process.  Still, I hope they'll provide a starting point for further
> discussion, at least.  

Melinda, these are a great start for "how to make a decision".  I
think that until we make the more fundamental principles explicit --
"why" are we making this decision, what our common goals are -- it
will be hard to agree on principles for decision making.  If we can
get the fundamentals down, e.g. as an extension to rfc 3935, that will
save a lot of time in agreeing on things like this.  That said ...

> My specific concerns are that: 1) consensus-style
> decision-making does not scale to an organization the size of the IETF,

As you've said before, there are many approaches to consensus.  Can't
we still have rough consensus, but reach it in different ways?

> 2) there's an increasing number of disaffected participants who are
> complaining about process and even threatening litigation and we need
> a crisper decision-making and decision-recording process as protection
> against those, 3) there's currently a lack of clarity about the
> appropriate organizational response to a "bad" decision, and 4)
> decisions often seem to be revisited over and over until someone
> caves from exhaustion.

All true.

Thanks.

swb

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