Re: [STDS-802-16] 802.20 Sponsor Ballot Pool Invitation/Solicitation

["Roger B. Marks" <r.b.marks@IEEE.ORG>]

Phil,

When I fill out the form used to initiate the ballot group invitation, I am asked to specify the duration of the invitation. The default is 30 days. According to the IEEE-SA balloting FAQ:

 <http://standards.ieee.org/faqs/ballotform.html>

"The invitation period usually stays open for 30 days, however this is at the discretion of the Sponsor Chair. Remember: our rules state that an invitation must remain open for a minimum of 15 days." You can see the Standards Board Operations Manual for more on this.

I'm old-school. I learned from my first Sponsor Chair, Jim Carlo, that a Sponsor Ballot invitation is 30 days. I was trained that Sponsor Ballot is intended to expose the WG's draft to outside scrutiny for the first time; that the purpose of the ballot is to improve the draft, not to approve it; that reviews and comments are the value of the ballot process and need to be encouraged, not avoided. Shortening the invitation could obviously have the effect of limiting outside review.

I've been under the impression that all the 802 projects use a 30-day invitation, but I don't know for sure. I don't know how the EC would feel about a shortened invitation.

I plan to continue to continue to use 30-day invitations. However, as usual, I'll do my best to plan ahead to avoid any impact to our development schedules.

If you (or other 802.16 members) have a different perspective on this, let's have a discussion at a future WG session.

Regards,

Roger

Roger,

I received the following notification/solicitation to participate in the

802.20 Sponsor Ballot pool via myProject in my IEEE web account on

21-Nov-2007:

[snip]

While I have questions as to the perhaps too quick initiation of this

Sponsor Ballot Pool solicitation given that the matter of the specific type

of 802.20 Sponsor Ballot (individual, entity, or some other as yet defined

method) has yet to be determined by the IEEE-SA, per the EC’s request, and

this solicitation may be either premature or superfluous, my question is

really on another aspect of the solicitation. Specifically, I note that the

solicitation has only a 17 day duration (Nov 21 through Dec 7) for

response. In the past you have always enforced a 30 day Sponsor Ballot Pool

solicitation/formation period and that has caused us timing problems on

some occasions, creating delays in our initiation of Sponsor Ballot. My

question is: what is the rule for the minimum Sponsor Ballot Pool

solicitation/formation period?

Thanks,

Phillip Barber

Chief Scientist

Wireless Advanced Research and Standards

Huawei Technologies Co., LTD.