what are the real problems

[Keith Moore]

> > In some cases, this may require exploring
> > more than one path, and eventually choosing the one that works
> 
> or maybe, just maybe, let the people who wnat to use the technology
> do the choosing
> 
> not a 1,000 flowers but sometimes 2 or 3

not saying it's always a bad idea, but I can think of cases where it's worked
poorly.  cell phone service in the US is one example; instant messaging is
another.

questions which might be relevant in a particular case:

- will the choices actually be made by the users based on how well a protocol
  suits their needs, or for some other reason which forces the protocol
  choice?
- will competition in the marketplace between multiple protocols result in
  feature refinement?
- will competition in the marketplace between multiple protocols result in
  eventual de facto standardization?
- will it be easy for users to migrate from one protocol to another as the
  market decides which ones are better, or will such migration be too onerous
  for some reason?

when a vendor tries to push its own protocol or protocol variant often it
seems to me that the goal is to limit consumer choice.