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Re: The IETF environment

2014-04-25 10:56:56
Dave Crocker wrote:

With respect to getting work done, this is a bottom-up organization, not a top-down one. (That's why I think Area "Director" is a serious misnomer and Area "Facilitator" would be far more accurate.)

 But it seems pretty clear that people regard the IETF as
a bit more than that. Maybe they shouldn't, but they do.

Yes, there is quite a bit of mythology about the IETF. Sometimes it borders on mysticism...

Bottom up is generally a good thing, and that's certainly been IETF's traditional modus operandi. But... in that IETF is the official standard body for the Internet - and it's ultimately the standards that hold the Internet together -- isn't the real discussion about:

1. Are the emerging scale, scope, complexity, and issues involved in Internet operation/management/<your favorite term> highlighting the limits of that bottom-up (or perhaps, arms-length) approach to the way IETF is playing its role?

2. Are there changes needed?

Miles Fidelman



--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra