[discuss] /1net Steering/Coordination Commitee

Fri Dec 20 11:48:00 UTC 2013

John Curran <jcurran at arin.net> wrote:

> Much like the Internet itself, we should strive for incremental
> improvements over time, but not let that prevent operations in the
> present.

Yes, that's a very valid point -- provided that the shortcomings are not
so bad that they prevent the “operations in the present” from being
legitimate at all (which may or may not be the case in the current
situation; I'm not currently taking a position on that).

The reason why I replied to Milton's posting is that I strongly believe
that when less than perfect processes and their results are accepted,
valid criticisms should still be acknowledged as such, and not be
rejected out of hand with a claim about the critic being “miffed” for
reasons of non-inclusion.

As a matter of fact I would say that it is generally not possible to
make a valid criticism about lack of sufficient inclusiveness unless
someone has tried unsuccessfully to get included.

It is important to avoid developing a culture in which criticisms about
insufficient inclusiveness will always be rejected out of hand, where
anyone who would make such a criticism would know in advance that they
would either get accused of simply being personally upset about not
having been included, or ridiculed with a statement like “nobody else
asked at the time to be included, you're too late now”.

Greetings,
Norbert