Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!limbo!taylor
From: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix
Subject: Re: nominees BOF?
Message-ID: <326@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 14 Jan 90 20:44:10 GMT
References: <1990Jan9.221705.17622@utzoo.uucp> <316@limbo.Intuitive.Com> <6922@pdn.paradyne.com> <1990Jan11.193931.4650@utzoo.uucp> <614@ssbell.IMD.Sterling.COM> <1107@swbatl.UUCP>
Reply-To: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor)
Organization: Intuitive Systems, Mountain View, CA: +011 (415) 966-1151
Lines: 57

> Perhaps the individual candidates could simply take questions via 
> the net for a limited time.  Less hassle than a BOF and wider audience.  

Gee, you just *know* something strange is afoot when *Tom* has such a
good idea!  :-)  				  [just joking, Tom!]

I think that Usenix nominees fielding questions via the net is a good
idea.  I think that, however, it's probably informative to check out
whether the current nominees are participants in Usenet or not in the
first place because what we're skirting is the fundemental problem
of pre-election periods, where candidates change their behaviour to
sway or impress the voting populace.

Of course, there's also the question of whether participation on 
Usenet is a useful and necessary selection criteria.  I can see 
both sides of the coin on this one; on the one hand, it's pretty
clear that Usenet is a common and popular communications mechanism
and vehicle for information dissemination, especially from a group 
such as the Usenix Association.  On the other hand, however, the
last thing I would want was a board member that spent their time 
reading and writing to alt.sex.bestiality (or some other "way out" 
group) INSTEAD of spending the time and brain cells to be aware 
and knowledgable about the Unix industry and marketplace.  

After all, I believe that one of the fundamental challenges facing 
the Association right now is just that; the transition from being 
in essence an elite Unix hackers club [*] to being a more general 
purpose Unix community organization (and the subsequent challenge 
it becomes distinguishing ourselves from the UniForum Association
as well as other more tightly focused technical conferences like
Unix Solutions, or technical publications like the gradually
transitioning "Unix World" magazine, etc).

But that's for a real posting, not this discussion.  ;-)

In any case, I think that Tom has a good idea, and I, for one,
continue to endorse any mechanism whereby I can learn more about
the various people running for the different Usenix offices.

And for me personally, I think that Usenet participation *is* an
important criteria; I would like to know that the board has their
finger right on the pulse of the Unix programmers community, and
I think that Usenet is the main artery of that community...

						-- Dave Taylor

[*] don't get me wrong with this hackers club bit; I *like* that
    sort of organization since I can get my "marketing" and "sales"
    quota from other organizations.  I mean, after all, isn't the 
    bottom line here that we're supposed to be having FUN doing
    all this stuff?  That's certainly one of the fundamental 
    ingredients I would like to see the Association preserve...

Intuitive Systems			Nominee for
Mountain View, California		   Usenix member-at-large

taylor@limbo.intuitive.com    or   {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor