[NCSG-Discuss] On Diversity and Discrimination

[Avri Doria]

Hi,

The issue I have with the Talent criteria is that I find that often people with one perspective, don't quite recognize the talent of another perspective until they have worked together for a while.  So the comparison can be difficult.

So i guess i beleive in tokens and in giving the tokens to the most qualified from various perspectives.  And I sometime beleive it is best to leave a spot open until someone both qualified for the token and talented is found.

I don't know if we are saying the same, or similar thing.

avri


On 31 Jan 2013, at 16:04, Andrew A. Adams wrote:

> When creating a small sized group with governance authority (direct or as in 
> the case of many ICANN bodies indirectly through recommendations to the 
> Board, most of which are accepted) it is important to remember that the goal 
> should be to create the best group for the purpose, not simply to gather a 
> set of the best individuals. In particular due to various institutional 
> settings which produce a surfeit of straight white males from developed 
> countries with the knowledge, skills and political connections if one simply 
> choose the top n individuals on personal merit from a filtered pool of 
> available candidates, then the likely outcome is non-representative 
> (dominated by or even entirely made up of SWMs from developed countries). 
> Such a group does not have the breadth of experience which would make a good 
> governance body. Hence ICANN and many other groups have mechanisms to provide 
> for diversity in the selection of members of governing groups which provide 
> the group as a whole with a better range of experiences on which to draw, 
> improving the quality of the work of that group as well as its apparent 
> legitimacy to those affected by its activity. This is not about tokenism or 
> discrimination against a majority, but is all about favouring a global 
> maximum of group talent instead of a combination of local maxima of 
> individual talent.
> 
> (For the record, I'm a straight, white male citizen of one developed country 
> and resident of another.)
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Professor Andrew A Adams                      aaa at meiji.ac.jp
> Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration,  and
> Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics
> Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan       http://www.a-cubed.info/
>