what are the real problems

Dave Crocker dhc at dcrocker.net
Thu May 22 21:04:44 CEST 2003


Geoff,

GH> On the other hand the IETF still manages to undertake a certain amount of
GH> Bad Idea filtering, and the criteria for a Bad Idea has some reference to
GH> a generic engineering model of the Internet as we know it. Markets are not
GH> usually seen as discriminators of quality,
...

GH> If the only role of the IETF is to bless the offerings from certain vendors
GH> who hold significant market share and to soundly rubbish offerings from
GH> those vendors to whom the Market has shown displeasure, then
GH> we are all wasting our time.

This is an absolutely key point.

There is a difference between 'let a thousand flowers bloom' and 'let a
thousand weeds bloom'.

The IETF process is intended to exert quite a bit of quality control.

The difficulty is in thinking that quality control necessarily means
permitting only one solution to be issued.

Or that letting multiple solution be issued means that we exert no
quality control.

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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