Re: understanding consensus

[thomst@netcom.com (Thom Stark)]

Phillip J. Nesser writes:

> Every public process that I am aware of (in the US at
> least,  others feel free to comment on other countries) has a series of
> public hearings (similar to this list, the soliciation for proposals and
> the open meeting at teh IETF) and a group of people who decide (the IAHC
> here, but congrssional committee's and numerous other examples).  If I call
> my congressman and give him my opinion I wouldn't expect that the specific
> contents of that call to be entered into the public record, but I would
> hope that my call would influence the way that they vote.
> 
> I may be wrong and would happy to have some specific examples of a public
> process which is held to the levels of openness that you and some others
> are proposing.  

In California, we have a thing called the Edmund G. Brown Open Meetings
Act which requires considerably more input be made part of the public
record than do the US federal goverment regulations.  The Brown Act may
predispose those of us in California to want the IAHC to adhere to the
standard of greater, rather than lesser, disclosure of input from all
parties in all forms.

Because the IAHC is an appointed body with an international membership,
I do not think it is legally bound by the Brown Act.  As a matter of
personal preference, however, I would like the IAHC to publish *all*
the comments it has received from all parties who have not specifically
requested confidentiality.  I also feel that input from those parties
who *have* requested confidentiality be given a considerably lesser
weight in the IAHC's deliberations over a final and/or interim draft,
on the grounds that the end product toward which they (and we) are
working will be an openly-published set of specifications.  The chain
of logic which results in the specs must, itself, be defensible, and
that is considerably harder when the premises upon which it is based
cannot be publicly disclosed.

Regards,

Thom Stark

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