ISSUE: excessive perfectionism (was Re: ISSUE: Timeframes sho ld be focused on IETF purposes, not markets)

[graham.travers at bt.com]

Keith,

I'm not suggesting that we favour a sub-set; rather that we try to include
all the *customers* ( stakeholders or users, if you prefer ) that we can
identify - e.g. vendors, ISPs, researchers, end-users.....

I realise that such a list can not be comprehensive forever, as new types of
user will emerge;  but it does at least give us a checklist of who we should
currently be considering.

	Regards,

	Graham Travers

	International Standards Manager
	BT Exact

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-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Moore [mailto:moore at cs.utk.edu]
Sent: 11 June 2003 16:36
To: Travers,G,Graham,XVT TRAVERG R
Cc: moore at cs.utk.edu; problem-statement at alvestrand.no
Subject: Re: ISSUE: excessive perfectionism (was Re: ISSUE: Timeframes
sho ld be focused on IETF purposes, not markets)


> It's been said of I-D's, and it's true of these wider issues too: give the
> definitions before starting to discuss them.  

makes sense.

> Do we have any working IETF definitions of *current* customers, mission,
etc
> ?  If not, I think we should solve that problem before trying to
understand
> *customers' requirements*, *furthering the mission of the IETF*, etc.

As I said earlier, I think IETF's "customers" are all of those affected by
something that IETF does.  It strikes me as counterproductive to think that
our goal is to benefit some subset of those people without regard to the
harm
that we're doing to some other subset of those people.  

But maybe "customer" is a poor word to use, because it invites confusion of
IETF's motives with those of a business whose motive is profit, and which 
doesn't need to be very concerned with the interests of those who don't
buy its products or services.