An IETF with Much Diversity and Professional Conduct
RFC 7704
| Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(November 2015; No errata)
Was draft-crocker-diversity-conduct (individual)
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 by
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