Subject: [rrg] Next steps

From: Tony Li <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:00:52 -0700

Hi all,

Given Lixia's departure, I'm sure that folks have some questions about how we will proceed.  As I see them, our priorities, in order, are:

1) Finish off our existing work.  We've put the recommendation up for IRSG review.  We have our design goals and several documents from a number of proposals that we'd like to move forward.

2) Determine next topics.  Our current charter is pretty specific, and it will need updating to reflect the next topic (or set of topics) that the RG is going to consider. Please remember that these are supposed to be fairly broad _research_ topics.  Given that our mailing list volume is light, I'd like to open the floor for this discussion now.

3) Propose leadership.  Once we have topics in hand, we should consider who would be the appropriate person or persons to lead the discussion.  What has worked for us has been the combination of someone with an academic background and contacts with someone from the IETF side of the house.  This gives a good mix between theoretical and practical.

The IRTF chair, Aaron Falk, has indicated that while he has final approval over both topics and leadership, he would like the group to largely determine its own direction and leaders.

Comments?  Questions?

Regards,
Tony

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From: Sampo Syreeni <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:21:38 +0300 (EEST)

On 2010-08-30, Tony Li wrote:

> 1) Finish off our existing work.

In there, the remaining leadership will have to be extra diligent. No 
doubt they will be, but quite likely they will require some help because 
the final stages of putting out a deliverable tend to be the hardest and 
most labor intensive, with the least visibility for any volunteer. To 
wit, it'd take a genuine masochist to enjoy the final rounds of editing 
and politics before an i-d becomes an rfc. In that situation it can be 
genuine hell when you can't share the responsibility with a co-chair who 
was previously there to share the burden.

> 2) Determine next topics.

Everybody likes the pie in the sky. When an integral part of the 
leadership has just left, it tends to be the case that everybody who 
ever disagreed with whoever left reintroduces their pet project. Here, 
that's not likely to happen too much, but it's still a well-proven risk. 
So I'd say, facilitate the leadership, instead of congesting the interim 
one. An overburdened leader equals a failed group effort.

> 3) Propose leadership. Once we have topics in hand, we should consider 
> who would be the appropriate person or persons to lead the discussion.

Another very important thing, from my perspective, is that technical and 
research oriented lists like this one should be more or less independent 
of leadership. So if something suddenly comes up or goes away *simply* 
because of a leadership change, quite possibly that stuff has to be 
questioned as to its technical merits.

These kinds of changes can be a positive thing in that they unearth 
ideas which had political clout instead of technical merit. Either way.

> What has worked for us has been the combination of someone with an 
> academic background and contacts with someone from the IETF side of 
> the house. This gives a good mix between theoretical and practical.

Solely judging from the archives, I very much agree. That has always 
been the Internet way. Other than that, as very much a newcomer to the 
group, I'll abstain from any concrete decision-making from here on.

(I really should introduce myself. So, I'm a thirty-ish Finnish male 
late-time cypherpunk and long time remote IETF/RFC follower. No degree, 
so I might be out of my league here, yet I do catch up on the research 
literature thanks to my employer offering free access to IEEE and ACM 
amongst others. Mostly I won't have much to add to the discussion, but 
this particular temptation, so soon after my joining the list, was 
irresistible. When the time comes, I hope to be able to contribute as 
somebody who's interested in external data representation as an 
overarching discipline.)
-- 
Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy - [email-masked], http://decoy.iki.fi/front
+358-50-5756111, 025E D175 ABE5 027C 9494 EEB0 E090 8BA9 0509 85C2