Re: [rtcweb] The two consensus questions

[SM <[e-mail]>]

Hi Adam,
At 17:03 05-12-2013, Adam Roach wrote:
>There's a fairly long tradition of WG chairs asking questions to get 
>the "feeling of the room," as it's sometimes not quite possible to 
>determine consensus merely by listening to the points made at the 
>mic. Frequently, people will forgo making their point if they think 
>it's been made adequately by someone else.

I listened to the 20 minutes audio.  As background information, I am 
aware of the discussion about decision-making which occurred in March 
2012.  If I take only the audio into consideration I would draw the 
wrong conclusion.  In my opinion the two questions were a 
formality.  I don't know whether I would have asked them.  The 
"feeling of the room" was clear enough.

>In order for that to look like a vote, a "winning option" would have 
>been declared, and we would have moved on to other things.

Some working groups are difficult.  This working group is very 
difficult.  If an issue is controversial there are two possibilities:

   (i)   Choice A

   (ii)  Choice B

If the rule is "majority wins" it ends with either Choice A or Choice 
B.  If the rule is complex you still end with a significant number of 
persons in favor of one of the choices.  The alternative is to avoid 
any arithmetic.

Regards,
-sm