Markdown Version | Session Recording

Session Date/Time: 06 Nov 2024 11:45

WG Chairs Forum

Summary

This session focused on two key topics: working group surveys proposed by the IESG and presented by Jay Daley, and a presentation by Tim Wicinski on how the DNSOP working group manages workflow and transparency. The discussion on surveys revolved around the design, scope, and potential biases. The DNSOP presentation highlighted a GitHub-based issue tracker system for document management.

Key Discussion Points

• Working Group Surveys:
  • The IESG wants better information about working groups via two surveys: one for working group participants and one for working group chairs.
  • The participants' survey aims to gauge working group performance and individual engagement, without directly evaluating chairs.
  • The chairs' survey seeks to understand their knowledge, expertise, personal impact, and attitudes towards chairing.
  • Concerns were raised about potential biases in the participant survey, including normalization for group traffic, the impact of grudges, and self-selection.
  • Suggestions were made to include demographic information for meta-analysis, though concerns about anonymization were noted.
  • The number of questions was kept deliberately low and prioritisation was possible to encourage responses.
  • Potential difficulties of standardising questions across working groups with different workloads and levels of difficulty.
• DNSOP Workflow Management:
  • DNSOP uses a GitHub-based issue tracker for transparency and task management.
  • The issue tracker helps to track documents and issues, assign responsibilities, and link documents to charter items.
  • The system integrates with GitHub's weekly email updates.
  • Consideration for working groups that have busy workflows and a need for transparent operations.

Decisions and Action Items

• Jay Daley (IETF Executive Director): Will review the survey questions, and the options for anonymous data collection and take feedback from this forum.
• Jay Daley and Jeffrey: To discuss demographic data collection for the participant survey offline.
• Participants: To send suggestions for topics for future WG Chairs Forum sessions to the mailing list or Richer Eye.
• Jay Daley: Look at working group chair training needs based on role areas of chairing.

Next Steps

• The IESG will further refine the survey designs based on feedback from the WG Chairs Forum.
• Jay Daley will continue to investigate the best approach to demographic data collection while preserving anonymity.
• Tim Wicinski will continue to share the DNSOP workflow management system with other working groups.