*>
*> But in the scenarios you allude to, pretty much *all* of the work to
*> address those problems should have been handled on the WG mailing
*> list. Also, standards do not get approved at IETF meetings (referring
*> to your "rubber stamped by Cisco" comments), so there's no need to
*> show up to "vote" for your favourite protocol.
*>
*> Being practical, you only *need* to attend a meeting if there is an
*> intractable problem in front of a WG you're actively participating in,
*> and solving that problem requires a face-to-face session.
It would be nice if this were true. However, something we have learned
from nearly 30 years of using email for designing network protocols:
email is a great way to carry on complex technical discussions and to
solve technical problems, but it is generally ineffective for making
group decisions. That is why face-face meetings are still needed.
Bob Braden