[AFS3-std] AFS Standardisation

[David Boyes]

> What do you mean by "coordinators"?

What I mean is the next tier down -- the people that are actually likely
to do the work -- WG chairs need to have Indians to get actual standards
docs produced to a competent standard. The current proposal (as you
pointed out) covers the chiefs and the registration agencies adequately.
>From observing other standardization efforts in the ISO and IEEE, it's
proved to be a good idea to give those chiefs some guidelines for the
kind of people who prove to be good at this sort of horse-trading and
not end up as weenies or detractors.=20

The IETF and IEEE have good guidelines for this sort of thing -- read
the Applications area director notes at ietf.org for "what to look for
in good lieutenants". I don't think you need to construct new guidelines
(in fact, to Ken's point, I'm still kind of baffled why this entire
process doesn't end up as a IETF working group in the Applications
directorate rather than inventing Yet Another Process, but as a
latecomer, c'est la vie), but the question is likely to come up once the
process is online and operating, and it would be good to have an answer
in place.=20

To explicitly address Ken's rather piquant "suggestion", the point IMHO
is NOT to make this process depend on individuals. "Duke it out with
these big kahunas in the steel cage" doesn't develop new talent, and
doesn't evolve the viewpoints and directions that can be taken to keep
this thing moving forward, regardless of how benevolent the kahunas can
be assumed to be. While it's personally uncomfortable in the short term
for the individuals involved, the restrictions that the IETF and IEEE
place on term limits for WG chairs and other administrative positions, I
think, have overall been beneficial. Those have to be agreed up front to
work, though (so that everyone is at least understanding what the rules
of play are), and I think that's the process that is going on here. A
certain amount of intellectual tedium and complexity is the price to
long-term scalability.=20

At least I hope that's what we're trying to do.=20

-- db