All,
Some good points here. Note however, that there are some people from
"outside" the IETF who have more technical expertise than those inside -
e.g. on the "new" IETF topics of optical control, where others have been
working for years. If they turn up to a meeting without having read all the
drafts, they should not be described as tourists. They are busy technical
experts who make an effort to see what is happening in their subject area,
in the interests of global harmonisation of standards.
Incidentally, last week I heard several "pillars" of the IETF make comments
which clearly showed that they had not read the drafts under discussion -
not that they admitted it !
I would like to see a little humility, and the acceptance that none of us is
the fount of all knowledge. Others - yes, including newcomers - may have
some good ideas.
Regards,
Graham
* - Email: graham(_dot_)travers(_at_)bt(_dot_)com
-----Original Message-----
From: John W Noerenberg II [SMTP:jwn2(_at_)qualcomm(_dot_)com]
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 6:57 PM
To: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: Kudos to MSP IETF hosts & other ramblings
At 9:07 AM +0100 3/26/01, Jon Crowcroft wrote:
i think the value of the IETF is its informality - the implied litigious
american attitude about "open" = "everyone MUST attend" etc would
break the IETF even more than pure size.
This is essentially what we mean when we say, "We believe in rough
consensus and running code." Informality is born of the attitude
everyone who comes to the IETF brings technical expertise.
At 4:31 PM +0000 3/23/01, Lloyd Wood wrote:
On Fri, 23 Mar 2001, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> ... "tourist" refers to someone who attends
> and possibly tries to participate in working groups without having
done
their homework. I've lost track of how many times this week I heard
"I
haven't read the drafts, but..." or "Did you read the draft? No,
but..."
But isn't cross-group fertilisation and wider exposure of work
supposed to be good for the open process and peer review?
Applying your technical expertise requires understanding the nature
of the problem. Not reading the drafts and reviewing the archives
makes the cross-fertilization rather sterile.
--
john noerenberg
jwn2(_at_)qualcomm(_dot_)com
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Nothing disturbs a bishop quite so much as a saint in the parish.
-- Lila, Robert M. Pirsig, 1991
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