[CVEPRI] The future of Editorial Board membership

["Steven M. Christey" <coley@linus.mitre.org>]

All,

In a recent email, Stuart Staniford made some comments regarding a
concern about being "kicked off the Board."  As you should know from
Board meetings and/or summaries, MITRE is re-evaluating Board
membership and trying to do a better job of identifying the roles and
responsibilities for Board members.  Stuart was brought onto the Board
primarily as a liaison to the CIDF and IDWG worlds, and he has
fulfilled his role appropriately, while also contributing to some
Board meetings and writing one of the drafts of the CyberCrime treaty
letter.

On the other hand, there are Board members who were brought onto the
Board because they were going to vote on candidates.  Those who
haven't done so will be re-evaluated in terms of the role that they
took on when they joined.

There are many different roles that Board members take within the CVE
Initiative, and I am working on identifying these roles more
concretely.  This will then become a basis for evaluating how much a
Board member is contributing to an effort.  Note that some members'
participation is not always visible, even to other Board members.
There is also the recognition that other work or personal pressures
will occasionally prevent Board members from contributing on a
consistent basis.

We will continue to be open with the entire Board about the changes in
membership policy that we are considering, and I expect that this will
continue to be a topic of discussion at Board meetings.

If it is decided that removal of some members is necessary, then those
Board members who are on the fringes of participation will be given a
reasonable chance to bring their level of participation up to
expectations.  I believe that this is important since the roles and
responsibilities for Board members has been so informal.  And as has
been mentioned before, the overall participation of organizations with
multiple Board members will be examined most closely.

Those who work primarily in the IDS arena may eventually wish to move
into a separate CIEL organization, if such a beast evolves.  My
presentation on CIEL seemed well-received at the last Board meeting,
so I expect there to be more "work" ahead for IDS people within the
context of the Board, at least in terms of deciding the future of
CIEL.  (We will be giving you a CIEL update shortly, but as a
reminder, MITRE has not yet determined how much it can directly
support such an effort.  See the writeup of the last Board meeting at
http://cve.mitre.org/board/archives/2000-08/msg00013.html for a
refresher on CIEL.  We are presently working on a draft CIEL.)

In addition, as discussed at the last Board meeting, a "CVE working
group" will be developed.  This will help anyone who is interested in
helping the CVE Initiative to contribute.  It may also become a
"proving ground" for potential Board members.  The working group,
which I believe will remain informal, may ultimately be a more
appropriate "organization" for some current Board members to
participate in, if/when Board membership itself becomes more formal.

Hopefully this email answers more questions than it raised :-)

- Steve