Re: How IETF treats contributors

["Olaf M. Kolkman" <olaf at ripe.net>]

Thomas Gal:
> I agree with: 
> 
> "This isn't suppose to be an ego trip. If people really think the documents
> are important, they don't need their names on them.  If they need their name
> on it, they are doing it for the wrong reasons."

Me too. Documents should only be written if they are important for the
commons. 

But.

If it comes to acknowledging attributions we have to be careful. I do
not think it is a good idea to drop authorship of documents.  We do
not have many means to motivate people. Giving credit is actually one
of very few means that the IETF has available as a motivational
tool. 

It is easy to forget folk that where involved in early stages, but as
Christian said "bits are cheap" and if there is doubt on where to stop
acknowledging people we'd better be safe than sorry.

I'd like to expand on what Dean said: "Credit and attribution is about
intellectual honesty [ and _courtesy_ ] not about copyright law".



-- Olaf



_______________________________________________
Ietf mailing list
Ietf at ietf.org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf