[Gnso-rpm-sunrise] [Gnso-rpm-trademark] RPM sub team homework assignments need to be "bite-sized"

[George Kirikos]

Hi fellow sub team members,

Since my concerns haven't been addressed on the main mailing list, I'm
being compelled to file a Section 3.7 appeal shortly (probably later
today, or tomorrow), in order to make sure that we have the
resources/time we need to actually do the work. The section 3.7 appeal
is meant to be constructive, not to obstruct our work, but to call to
the attention of the "powers that be" the realities on the ground that
they appear to not be aware of or are ignoring. In preparing my notes
for the Section 3.7 appeal, I thought I'd share with you some data.

For those who haven't started this week's "homework" yet, the 4
documents (first 4; 8 more to go) amount to approximately 27 pages.
Those need to be read, analyzed, and then cross-referenced against the
Charter questions.

For TM Claims, there are 5 charter questions (some with multiple
sub-parts in the them). For Sunrise, there are 12 charter questions, a
preamble, and Q5 was broken into 2 parts, so 14 documents used for the
cross-referencing, again, some with multiple sub-parts. So, for those
on both sub teams, that's a total of 19 documents where we need to be
potentially submitting inputs/analysis/citations.

For those who've actually attempted this in the past, especially in
depth (I've named names earlier in this thread, but the core group so
far has really been Griffin, Kristine, Kathy and myself), you know
first hand how time consuming this is. I think despite this, this
week's homework is doable (in say 4 hours or less).

BUT, if you've not done this already, open the other 8 links (i.e. the
other 8 documents), and see what's coming up, namely more than 250
more pages (some of it single-spaced!) [e.g. 67 + 2 + 3 pages for the
Analysis Group stuff, 20 + 74 pages for INTA, and so on]

If you've not fainted yet, let me repeat, that's 250+ more pages (not
counting the 27 pages for this week).

For those still with us (perhaps after being administered CPR, etc.
... :-) ), according to our updated process:

https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/gnso-rpm-wg/2019-January/003619.html

we are supposed to be finished that task in only 1 more meeting on
February 13, 2019 (i.e. Feb 6, this coming week, is for the first 27
pages). And not only that, February 13 is also the date to consider
that "additional data" which is to be submitted by Feb 8 (this Friday)
-- I've already posted on the main mailing list how unreasonable that
other deadline is (won't say more here).

Anyhow, for those who haven't spoken up yet, I ask you to consider how
those 250+ pages will be read, analyzed, and cross-referenced against
the Charter questions by February 13 (starting from Feb 6, after we
finish this week's homework).

One of the constructive suggestions I will make is that all future
homework assignments (both in sub teams, and in the main working
group) have an ***explicit*** stated time estimate attached to it.
This should then be compared with an "expected time contribution" by
members. I asked this before (wasn't a rhetorical question!) but would
love to know how much time others are expecting to contribute to this
subteam (or even the main RPM team) per week.

For me, as I mentioned before, I can do 4 hours of "homework" a week,
plus I spend between 90 minutes and 2 hours preparing for the calls
(i.e. before the scheduled calls, reading others' input on the
homework, and getting my thoughts in order to be able to engage in a
discussion on reconciling all the points of view, etc.), plus the 2
hours for the calls themselves. That's 8 hours per week! I think
that's more than one can reasonably expect, for an unpaid volunteer.

Others have suggested that 2 hours of "homework" time might be
reasonable (that's on top of the 1 or 2 hours for the calls, and
prep).

I'll have other constructive suggestions as well (e.g. perhaps having
a call early in the week of March 6, where no sub team calls are
scheduled, as well as another  call late in the week of March 20,
which might give us 2 more productive weeks to be able to accomplish
all that's ahead of us.

I could be doing better things on Super Bowl Sunday, but ultimately
we're going to have to have this discussion at some point (either
through the Section 3.7 appeal, or on the sub team call this
Wednesday, or on the mailing list now), so I thought I'd give you a
heads-up, as things are untenable at present.

Enjoy the big game!

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
416-588-0269
http://www.leap.com/

P.S. I'll be at home writing up the section 3.7 appeal this afternoon
(Toronto time), if anyone wants to discuss in real-time by phone (much
easier than writing these emails!). Or, we can talk next week.