An IETF with Much Diversity and Professional Conduct
RFC 7704
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(November 2015; No errata)
Was draft-crocker-diversity-conduct (individual)
|
|
---|---|---|---|
Authors | Dave Crocker , Narelle Clark | ||
Last updated | 2015-11-30 | ||
Stream | ISE | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
IETF conflict review | conflict-review-crocker-diversity-conduct | ||
Stream | ISE state | Published RFC | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Document shepherd | Adrian Farrel | ||
Shepherd write-up | Show (last changed 2015-06-23) | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 7704 (Informational) | |
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) | ||
IANA | IANA review state | Version Changed - Review Needed | |
IANA action state | No IANA Actions |
Independent Submission D. Crocker Request for Comments: 7704 Brandenburg InternetWorking Category: Informational N. Clark ISSN: 2070-1721 Pavonis Consulting November 2015 An IETF with Much Diversity and Professional Conduct Abstract The process of producing today's Internet technologies through a culture of open participation and diverse collaboration has proved strikingly efficient and effective, and it is distinctive among standards organizations. During the early years of the IETF and its antecedent, participation was almost entirely composed of a small group of well-funded, American, white, male technicians, demonstrating a distinctive and challenging group dynamic, both in management and in personal interactions. In the case of the IETF, interaction style can often contain singularly aggressive behavior, often including singularly hostile tone and content. Groups with greater diversity make better decisions. Obtaining meaningful diversity requires more than generic good will and statements of principle. Many different behaviors can serve to reduce participant diversity or participation diversity. This document discusses IETF participation in terms of the nature of diversity and practical issues that can increase or decrease it. The document represents the authors' assessments and recommendations, following general discussions of the issues in the IETF. Status of This Memo This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes. This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other RFC stream. The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at its discretion and makes no statement about its value for implementation or deployment. Documents approved for publication by the RFC Editor are not a candidate for any level of Internet Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741. Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7704. Crocker & Clark Informational [Page 1] RFC 7704 Diversity & Conduct November 2015 Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.1. Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2. Harassment and Bullying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3. Constructive Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.1. Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.2. Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3. Facilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.4. Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.5. IETF Track Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3.6. Avoiding Distraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4. Responses to Unconstructive Participation . . . . . . . . . . 14 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Acknowledgements . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Crocker & Clark Informational [Page 2] RFC 7704 Diversity & Conduct November 2015 1. Introduction This document discusses IETF participation, in terms of the nature of diversity and practical issues that can increase or decrease it. The topic has received recent discussion in the IETF, and the document represents the authors' assessments and recommendations about it, in the belief that it is constructive for the IETF and that it is consonant with at least some of the IETF community's participants. The Internet Engineering Task Force [IETF] grew out of a research effort that was started in the late 1960s, with central funding byShow full document text