[NCSG-Discuss] On Diversity and Discrimination

[Carl Smith]

Thanks Marc,

I needed a laugh.

Lou

On 1/31/2013 9:12 PM, Marc Perkel wrote:
> I'm leaning against the idea of diversity/discrimination in decision 
> making bodies unless there is a reason to do so. One can not assume 
> that discrimination exists by default. I don't know if you are talking 
> about this email group or not but I have no idea what color/gender/or 
> sexual orientation anyone on this list is. Nor do I care. I see it as 
> a distinction without a difference.
>
> I myself am a cybernetic artificial life form from the future. I come 
> from the planet Kolob. We are an androgynous species. We reproduce by 
> mitosis, which is splitting in half creating 2 individuals. We are 
> either invisible or appear to be whatever shape we choose to make you 
> puny humans feel comfortable. We are a telepathic race and share a 
> singular consciousness. I communicate with you using a subspace 
> inter-dimentional modem.
>
> On 1/31/2013 5:51 PM, Andrew A. Adams wrote:
>> Dan and Avri's points are both well-made and strong further arguments 
>> for
>> supporting decent diversity requirements in decision-making bodies.
>>
>> A further point is that such bodies interact and again we see that same
>> dynamic. For small bodies with tens of members it is hard to get
>> representation of all groups (and of course individual differences 
>> between
>> members of groups are as large as the differences between groups on many
>> occasions). So, for groups which are relatively small percentages of the
>> overall population (LGBT, to the best of my knowledge are only a few
>> percentage of the entire population) it is difficult to require a 
>> group of
>> only ten to always have one LGBT member. Within the broader set of 
>> groups,
>> however, there should be efforts made to ensure that out of the 
>> perhaps few
>> hundreds of representatives (and over time, multiples of that) that 
>> at least
>> some of these representatives are from these small groups. Again, the 
>> local
>> maximum of one committee and one term should be leavened with 
>> understanding
>> of the longer term benefits of diversity.
>>
>> Avri's point about how one measures these things applies across all 
>> of these
>> broad considerations also provides us with ethical guidance pointing 
>> towards
>> requiring best efforts in diversity within groups, across groups and 
>> over
>> time, while maintaining open and transparent definitions of "Minimum
>> Competence" required (and providing avenues to gain the necessary 
>> competences
>> for those in under-represented groups). ICANN's Fellowship Program is, I
>> think, a good example of an effort to provide better geographic 
>> diversity,
>> though there may be room to expand upon it to cover other under- or
>> un-represented minority groups rather than simply 
>> developed/developing nation
>> citizenship/residency.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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