Thoughts on membership

["Scott E. Fahlman" <Fahlman@C.CS.CMU.EDU>]

Do you really think that an "Industry Advisory Committee" that has no
more real power than anyone else who gets to flame on the Common Lisp
mailing list will satisfy these people?  It seems to me that if we get
into this business, the following results are likely:

1. A month-long wrangle over exactly what powers this group should have.

2. Everyone named to the committee will feel compelled to express
himself.

3. Once they've taken stands on behalf of their companies they will feel
compelled to fight for them, and to be unhappy when they lose.

4. At the very least they will expect to be listened to and responded
to, creating a large time sink.  There are a hell of a lot of little
two-person software companies out there.

5. Soon we have 100 disgruntled companies to deal with, and not just
one.

I agree that something like your panel of corporate representatives is
probably less of a distraction than having "n randoms on the committee"
for large n, but my suspicion is that this whole thing would go away if
we increased n from 0 to 1.

-- Scott