IETF an Openness

[hartmans]

I'm sort of having a crisis of faith about the IETF lately. We've been doing a number of things that test the assumption that the IETF is an open organization that tries to be fair. We permanently banned the posting rights of Dean Anderson even though we never explicitly tried leser measures like a 30-day suspension. Our reason? Apparently while such measures are strongly recommended they are not normatively required. We didn't bother to explain why we couldn't take the time to apply them in this case--they were not required so we did not require them.

More recently we've been having an IESG discussion about banning people from participating who don't make sense. AFter all, that's a DOS attack on the process trying to understand them. Our time would better be spent managing working groups or writing drafts.

And then there's Jefsey.

Comments

IETF Openness

[(Anonymous)]

The IETF is the Catholic Church of the High Priests of the New Era. Open when it suits its purposes, by nature it is a closed political organization. A rule of elites which, if the public benefits, does so only by accident. Over time we can expect it to become more Byzantine, authoritarian, and opaque.

You are seeing the beginning of such a system, which usually works quite well for the first few generations. Over time, however, apointee-based organizations all follow the same trend.

At least Gibbon would perdict so, I suppose.

--arley