Staying on Track (Re: Documenting pilots (RE: pausable explanation for the Document Series))

Dave Crocker dhc at dcrocker.net
Fri Jun 6 17:15:35 CEST 2003


Melinda,

MS> I'm not crazy about things like what's going on with the
MS> SIRS proposal (going off and collecting volunteers without
MS> real agreement from the cohort that this is a good thing to
MS> do) because it feels pre-emptive and unco-operative,


Oh boy, do we have different views about such efforts.

Let's be clear about the nature of this sort of "preemptive" and
"uncooperative" effort:

1. At the last IETF meeting, Brian came up with an idea, chatted it up,
got good reactions and suggestions, recruited someone to help with the
writing a few paragraphs on it and then circulated the idea informally.

2. The writeup was chatted up, got good suggestions and reactions, and
turned into an I-D.

3. The I-D got chatted up, got good suggestions and reactions, and
turned into an experiment.

4. The experiment has, so far, gotten volunteers, started to offer
itself for public use, and will prove useful -- or not -- on its merits.
It has no force of law, or anything other than basic credibility.

It also has not had months and months of delay.

So, in fact, this is about as far as you can get from being preemptive or
uncooperative.

On the other hand, yes, it is also very far from relying on bureaucratic
approval.

Rather than being worried that it has occurred, perhaps we should be
worried that more such efforts have not?

d/
--
 Dave Crocker <mailto:dcrocker at brandenburg.com>
 Brandenburg InternetWorking <http://www.brandenburg.com>
 Sunnyvale, CA  USA <tel:+1.408.246.8253>, <fax:+1.866.358.5301>



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