This all sounds like you're being a tad fluffy on the business side here...
Well.. I burst out loud laughing on that one. I guess other
certification efforts, that cost $5000+ for logo compliance
aren't fluffy?
But the biggest problem here is that you've just created a $10M annual
cashflow
for the IETF to manage. This would be a massive infusion of cash for an entity
that today runs on cookies and good will. Do you really think that you can put
$10M (or gosh forbid, $10M *a year*) into a bank account without it starting
to
attract attention? History tells us it would immediately generate its own
infrastructure to consume it (have you looked over at the DNS world recently?)
You are right about all of this. I'm just looking for solutions
to strengthen vendor compliance. Ed Gerck's "Non-Compliance" list
is a great solution, that would probably meet our needs for
contracts... which is where this discussion (from my perspective)
came from.
Maybe the IETF doesn't want the cash flow? Kind of sounds like it :).
Worst case... have big IETF parties, courtesy of trademark
registrations.
Try for a moment to image the new class of problems this will entail for the
IETF (and the new class of people who would show up for the "budgeting and
cashflow management working group") if the IETF was suddenly worth $10M a
year.
Remember the old curse "be careful what you ask for, in case you actually get
it"...
Your problem here is that your business case seems to fail
the smell test.
You are right about all of this of course.
But, hey if you really feel this has merit, I encourage you to go off for a
while and work up the details. But be *really* specific. Personally I'm
particularly interested in your business plan because after all, you're asking
for at least $10M and the market has been down for the past year. If you can
build a business that generates $10M a year with *this* idea, it would suggest
that the downturn is finally over...
Well.. let's be clear, I don't necessarily even want to do this. I'd
prefer it if we didn't actually, because all these integrity issues
would appear that would cloud the vision of our product. We are
a vendor, we want to make as much money as possible, and we want to
do that by building the best product, on the merits, that supports
the standards. But we need "the standards" to mean a lot more than
it currently does.
Maybe someone in academics should organize it. Is there like one of
those NSF Engineering Research Centers for the Internet or anything?
A group like that, with accounting, budgeting, etc. should probably
run this kind of thing. They are always looking for ways to generate
fees on industry, but they often have leaders with a great deal of
integrity, so a group like that might be ideal.
I just know, that as a business, we would buy the logo, and educate
CIOs about the importance of it.
So please include some market research on your numbers. I'd also like to see
the
detailed proposals outlining your processes, and I'd like to the names and fee
schedules for the lawyers you've hired to vet all this. And finally, if you
can
work in seven layers somewhere I'd be willing to resurrect some old T-shirts
from the early nineties for you, back from before people started taking the
IETF
this seriously...
Don't blame me, I'm just a visionary trying to offer new possible
solutions :).
Kyle Lussier
AutoNOC LLC