On 10/13/2013 1:02 AM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> From: Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpen...@gmail.com>> Reality is different - the outside world expects to hear from us. I would guess that nobody (almost nobody?)in the IETF objects to I* leadership representing our views at such things;
For at least one of the items in the signed statement, there is no basis for claiming to know what the IETF's views are.
When the IETF's views are clear, then of course having folks accurately represent those views publicly is dandy.
The thing is that I (and I suspect much of the IETF) feel that such I* leadership attendees need to make it _very_ clear at such events that they are there to present (as best they can) the views of the IETF as a whole, but they cannot _commit_ the IETF to anything: only the IETF acting as a whole can do that.
Here's where reality runs over theory. For mass-market public statements, such nuance is entirely lost. It is therefore misguided to believe that careful qualification will alter what is perceived by the public.
Lest anyone dismiss this concern with something along the lines of "we can't be responsible for other people's failure to listen carefully," I'll note that proactively anticipating and dealing with such likely failures is exactly the responsibility of anyone claiming to speak for an organization publicly.
There's even professional media relations training typically given to executives, for just this purpose.
So, for instance, in signing a statement, they need to say "John Smith, current Ixx chair, signing as an individual", or something like that - to make it clear to readers that their signature does not bind the organization as a whole.
Yeah, but the likely benefit of that isn't very high, given the strong predilection some folk have for stoking the political fires when the topic is already highly politicized. For example:
http://www.internetgovernance.org/2013/10/11/the-core-internet-institutions-abandon-the-us-government/
Again, the nature of playing in such a sandbox -- as the Montevideo Statement attempts to do -- requires robust effort both to be accurate in what is said, but also to protect against misinterpretation.
Montevideo Statement seems to have accomplished neither. d/ -- Dave Crocker Brandenburg InternetWorking bbiw.net
