And yes, I've seen WG try and discard earlier work...
I've seen them succeed, though perhaps not often enough.
(btw, whats the distinguishing characteristic between an "outsider" and an "
insider"?)
I was remembering numerous instances when an organization would issue
a press release of the form "we have protocol X, it's wonderful, and we're
submitting it to IETF"...eventually sending in an I-D which either got
completely ignored or (in rare cases) got published as Experimental with
the title changed from "the X standard" to "FOOCORP's X protocol".
Keith