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Re: IETF logistics

2000-12-19 10:10:02

Ran,

Everything you say contains truth, but to be optimistic in this holiday
season, in some ways we are doing much better than one might expect.
Here is a larger context...


THEN:
        - The WWW had not been created, or was just in its infancy.

        - Commercialization of the Internet was just beginning.  The
          major users of the Internet were from the academic community,
          as a result of NSFnet.  The .com part of the DNS space was
          not much used.  The DNS was used only for host names.

        - The major vendors represented in IETF were mostly small
          companies --e.g., Cisco, Proteon, FTP Software, ...  The big
          guys like IBM and DEC were treating the Internet something
          like a rare disease -- to be tolerated and watched from afar,
          in case something unexpected (like continued growth) should
          happen.  IETF was not even on the radar screens of the Bell
          heads.

        - The Internet researchers who had developed TCP/IP and
          friends were still significant players in the IETF.
          The heirs of this group, the IAB, set Internet standards


NOW:
        (Left as an exercise to the reader, but here's a clue: it's
        a different world out there!)


Given this context, it actually seems somewhat remarkable to me that
the IETF has so far been able to adapt to changing circumstances
(without becoming another ISO or ITU).

Bob Braden



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