Requirements for Open IESG Positions
RFC 3777 says the following about the qualifications required for open IESG/IAB positions: "The IESG and IAB are responsible for providing summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for their respective open positions to the Executive Director. The summaries are provided to the nominating committee for its consideration. 2. The nominating committee selects candidates based on its understanding of the IETF community's consensus of the qualifications required and advises each confirming body of its respective candidates." The following is the information provided by the IESG to the nomcom. The nomcom is now accepting the community's input on the qualifications required for the open IESG positions. Please send your notes, either as commentary on the following or independent notes to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thank you. best regards, Lakshminath This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of the IESG members whose terms will expire during the first IETF Meeting in 2008. Under the Nominations Committee (NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 3777, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below, and is suitable for publication to the community, along with the NomCom request for nominations. We realize that this is a long list of demanding qualifications, and that no one person will be able meet all of the requirements for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualifications and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of these qualifications. GENERIC REQUIREMENTS IESG members are the managers of the IETF standards process. They they must understand the way the IETF works, be good at working with other people, be able to inspire and encourage other people to work together as volunteers, and have sound technical judgment about IETF technology and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere. Area Directors (ADs) select and directly manage the Working Group (WG) chairs, so IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 15 to 30 part-time people. Most ADs are also responsible for one or more directorate or review teams. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit them for IETF work is important. Having been a WG chair helps understand the WG chair role, and it will help when trying to resolve problems and issues that a WG chair may have. In addition, all IESG members should have strong technical expertise that crosses two or three IETF areas. Ideally, an IESG member would have made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF area, preferably authoring documents and/or chairing WGs in more than one area. (ADs are expected to personally review every Internet-Draft that they sponsor. For other Internet-Drafts, ADs must be satisified that adequate review has taken place.) It is very helpful for an IESG member to have a good working knowledge of the IETF document process and WG creation and chartering process. This knowledge is most likely to be found in experienced IETF WG chairs, but may also be found in authors of multiple documents. IESG members must also have strong verbal and written communications skills. They must have a proven track record of leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. IESG members must deal with many technical topics, so a strong technical background is required, but an IESG members should also have strong management and communication skills. An IESG member should guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfil IETF leadership roles in the future. A FEW COMMENTS ON THE IESG ROLE Serving on the IESG requires a substantial time commitment. The basic IESG activities consume between 25 and 40 hours per week (varying by area and by month, with the most time required immediately before IETF meetings). Most IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. Even if they do not occupy formal liaison positions, ADs may also need to interact with external bodies such as other standards development organizations (SDOs), which may require travel. It is also imperative that IESG members attend all IETF meetings (typically arriving one or two days early) and attend one, and sometimes two, IESG retreats per year. Because of the large time and travel commitments, employer support for a full two year term is essential. Because of personal impact, including awkwardly timed conference calls, an IESG member's family must also be supportive. APPLICATIONS AREA The Applications Area has historically focused on three clusters of protocols. The first cluster contains application protocols
[Fwd: Requirements for Open IESG Positions]
Under the Nominations Committee procedures defined in RFC 3777, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below, and is suitable for publication to the community, along with the Nomination Committee's request for nominations. We realize that this is a long list of demanding qualifications, and that no one person will be able meet all of the requirements for a specific position. We trust that the NomCom will weigh all of these qualifications and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of these qualifications. Generic Requirements: IESG members are the managers of the IETF standards process. This means that they must understand the way the IETF works, be good at working with other people, be able to inspire and encourage other people to work together on a volunteer basis, and have sound technical judgment about IETF technology and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere. ADs select and directly manage the WG chairs, so IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage ~15-30 part-time people. Most ADs are also responsible for one or more directorates or review teams. So the ability to identify good leaders and technical experts and recruit them for IETF work is required. Having been a WG chair helps in understanding the WG chair role, and will help in resolving problems and issues that a WG chair may have. In addition, all IESG members should have strong technical expertise that crosses two or three IETF areas. Ideally, an IESG member would have made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF area, preferably authoring documents and/or chairing WGs in more than one area. IESG members are expected to make sure that every document coming before the IESG is properly reviewed. Although IESG members may delegate the actual review to individuals or review teams, the IESG members will need to understand and represent the reviewers' objections or comments. So the ability and willingness to read and understand complex information quickly is another important attribute in an IESG member. (Note that this does not mean that every AD must review every draft personally - but they must be satisified that adequate review has taken place.) It is helpful for an IESG member to have a good working knowledge of the IETF document process and WG creation and chartering process. This knowledge is most likely to be found in experienced IETF WG chairs, but may also be found in authors of multiple documents. IESG members must also have strong verbal and written communications skills and a proven track record of leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. A few comments on the IESG role: Serving on the IESG requires a substantial time commitment. The basic IESG activities consume between 25 and 40 hours per week (varying by area and by month, with the most time required immediately before IETF meetings). Most IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. Even if they do not occupy formal liaison positions, ADs may also need to interact with external bodies such as other standards organizations, which may require travel. It is also imperative that IESG members attend all IETF meetings and up to two additional IESG retreats per year. Because of the large time and travel commitments, employer support for a full two year stint is essential for an IESG member. Because of personal impact including awkwardly timed conference calls, an IESG member's family must also be supportive. --- Applications Area: The Applications Area focuses on applications that run across the Internet and require some sort of standardized infrastructure to be effective. This includes, but is not limited to: E-Mail, Web protocols, Directory services, printing services and NetNews. The Applications area often discusses whether something is properly the realm of the IETF or "belongs" to other organizations. Because of this, and Applications AD needs to be willing and able to relate to a wide range of non-IETF organizations. An Applications AD also needs to be someone that we can trust to make these critical decisions about the scope of the IETF's work. Because of the breadth of the Applications area, an Application AD will have to deal with a large set of Internet applications protocols, including many with which he or she may not have direct experience. So, an Applications AD needs to be good at evaluating new approaches to new problems and assessing the expertise of the people who bring them to the IETF Because the set of people in the Applications Area changes with the protocols currently under development, the ability to clearly explain how the IETF works, and to help new WGs work well within the IETF fr
