Re: [Rfced-future] Model proposal

[Martin Thomson <[e-mail]>]

On Tue, Jul 7, 2020, at 13:14, Brian E Carpenter wrote:
> The basic problem is that this focuses rather narrowly on the RFC 
> production process and short-changes the strategy issue. 
...
> So your proposal [...] is a radical change that abolishes the Series Editor role and leaves 
> this set of worries on the IAB's plate, but without having a senior 
> professional with relevant knowledge and experience in charge of the 
> community consultation.

I think that this gets at the crux of the matter, so I'll address these together.

Yes, this proposes that we allocate fewer resources to the strategy function.  That is based on my experience with how much actual strategizing was performed in the time I followed this process as opposed to other things.

In my time on the IAB (and just preceding it), the bulk of time spent on "strategy" was spent on the v3 format, though there were other things like minting DOIs for RFCs.  These strategic items did not consume inordinate amounts of IAB or RSOC time then, even though the v3 format was a relatively intensive process at the level the work happened.  The IAB involvement was, as you might expect, executive level: we determined whether the process was functioning and approved the outcomes.  What dominated RSOC time was largely related to operations - or execution of strategy - reporting on document processing, monitoring costs and workload, discussion of tools development, and so forth.

I do recall several lengthy discussions about the number of authors on a document, but as these were recurrent and inconclusive, I am of the view that these are perfect for a working group to strategize on.

So I don't see this shifting more onto the IAB plate, either in terms of time spent or the extent of what we as a community might be asking of the IAB.  On the contrary, separation of operational duties from the strategic allows us to properly scale the resources we dedicate to each task.  As operational matters dominate, then finding a lightweight process for managing strategy is best.

Cheers,
Martin