Policy-Discussion

[Ian G <iang AT systemics.com>]

Lambert.Hofstra AT ins.com
 wrote:
> Hi Ian,
>
> Just a question: what would be the role of a "Senior Assurer"? Why would
> CAcert want to create a sort of "Super Assurer"?


I have to ramble here a bit.

The way I see it, it isn't so much of a direct, listed role 
as a recognition of having gone far.  With that signal of 
breadth and depth, we can potentially bring these senior 
people into more active roles.

Audit Impact #1:  as policies and documents are created, 
their import is spread to the assurers.  (You might have 
noticed last week a few comments that nobody seemed to know 
about the AB, CPS, DR, etc etc, work that had been done. 
That's an issue!)

There isn't much point in just emailing the Assurers and 
saying "hey, read this long boring document," we need 
something more positive, something more responsive.  It 
would be good to have a cadre of strong Assurers who could 
take these new developments out to the wider body.

Audit Impact #2:  It is certainly the case that some things 
(events, offices and organisational assurances) have wider 
ramifications than just the WoT assurance process covers.

Thinking in Audit terms, we can expect scrutiny of those 
things to start once the foundation of assurance is properly 
laid out;  one thing that is immediately obvious is that a 
new Assurer would probably not have the experience for these 
things.  We would look to see that someone senior was in 
control, someone who has a year or two's experience and can 
juggle the various conflicts and interests.

Random Observation #1:  Jens has pointed out that there is 
an issue with all Assurers being "the same:"  some people 
with a lot of experience are ignored because they are, 
apparently, the same as people who have just collected 100 
points.  It would be nice to point out who has this broader 
experience (which doesn't mean that they have to be listened 
to, but at least the signal is there).

Random Observation #2:  It sure would be nice to reward 
those who put in good service, beyond the normal.  In time, 
 a benefit might be that a title such as Senior Assurer can 
go on the CV/resume.  Already I have seen people put "CAcert 
Assurer" on their documents.

Random Observation #3:  Currently the only metric that 
signals to us how experienced an Assurer is seems to be the 
number of assurances done.  But I've seen with my own eyes 
that some people apply more due diligence than others, and 
the race to get as many assurances up on the points has lead 
to some odd results.

(Hence, CAcert has recently moved to have those experienced 
Assurers not do any more assurances at events, and instead 
work on helping the less experienced people.)

Random Observation #4:  There are something like 8000 
assurers.  There is a limit to how far CAcert can go just by 
treating this as a homogeneous body; we are already seeing 
quite tricky clashes between country groups.



Nothing about the above says "this is how it has to be." 
More likely, there are a bunch of problems and this is one 
possible solution.  Those who don't like it are no doubt 
thinking up some alternatives.

iang