Ballot Group Confidentiality

["Jim Carlo" <jcarlo@ti.com>]

A question has come up regarding the confidentiality of the balloting group,
and whether the names, addresses, emails on a balloting group are confidential?

In several other committees and ANSI SDO's I am on, the balloting group is open
and it is usual practice for proponents of a ballot to do some lobbying for
their cause.

After the ballot is completed, the names of who voted, their comments, and how
they voted is public information. The balloters names are placed in the final
standard. In 802.5, I used to publish lists of who voted and who has not voted
with their emails during the ballot to help get out the vote and get people to
call on others to vote.

My view is the balloting group, once formed, should be public information.
Actually, if this is not the case, then this causes some conflicts of interest
for chairs and others that may have access to the list, while others may not
have access.

Note that I am not saying that the membership lists or working group lists for
802 should be open, just that the balloting group should be open.

Any comments?

Jim Carlo (jcarlo@ti.com) Phone: 214-340-8837  Fax&Voice Mail: 214-853-5274
TI Fellow, Networking Standards at Texas Instruments
Chair, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6 Telecom and Info Exchange Between Systems
Chair, IEEE 802 LAN MAN Standards Committee