A 100.000 foot perspective on "what is the problem"

[Natale, Robert C (Bob)]

Hi,

Concerning what Juergen Schoenwaelder wrote on Fri, 13 Dec 2002 16:31:20
+0100:

js> x) There is a lack of a common understanding what the IETF's primary
   goals and customers are.
js> ...
js> [But perhaps this is really too high-level to be useful...]

In my judgment, it's at the exact level we ought to be focusing on here.
Your comments refer to just one kind of the large-scale core problems I
subsumed under the topic of lack of leadership in previous postings to
this list:  The IAB needs to be more active in terms of architecture
guidance, the IESG needs to be more aggressive in terms of steering the
efforts of the IETF, and the WG chairs needs to be more decisive in guiding
their groups to focus and consensus.  On the whole, those prescriptions
are intended to be applied proactively, as early in the overall process
as possible.  That means that some of the current round of suggested
process changes (yes, I do know that this is a problem-statement list,
but most folks are talking about fixes) may well need to be applied in
the short-term.  But the deeper causes that have led to the need for
this current discussion reside at that "higher-level" and will *have*
to addressed.

Cheers,

BobN