todd, and fellow ietf participants--
I don't want to eat too much bandwidth on the IETF Discussion list, so
this followup will be my last contribution on the subject. I considered
not posting anything at all, but I feel motivated to clarify my views.
On Wednesday, April 17, 2002, at 09:02 PM, todd glassey wrote:
[...] The IETF is still predominantly Engineering Staffers and the
Internet
has evolved to a point where it now needs Commercial input too. [...]
I see no problem whatsoever in the fact that an organization called the
Internet Engineering Task Force is primarily composed of individual
engineers. At the risk of sounding either like a reactionary or a
counter-revolutionary (you pick), I'll step forward to say that an
engineer with no commercial interests is like a politician with no
constituency. In other words: a monster raving looney.
It's true we might have a few bourgeois dilettantes who participate in
IETF work without pursuing any commercial interests in doing so, but so
what? If they can help out, we can use them. The rest of us all have
employment contracts to fulfill or businesses to run, and we have a keen
understanding that our commercial purposes drive the work we do.
You got a problem with that?
[...] The problem as I see it is that the Engineer (or child) in us is
frightened by this, since traditionally the commercial folks (the
adults) have driven home that [...]
This sentence made it very difficult for me to continue reading. It
doesn't seem like you know what the word 'engineering' means. There are
many fine dictionaries available on the web... hint hint.
[...] The current problem the world faces is that an Internet Standard
is
potentially worth billions of dollars. (see local exchange rates for
details
on the value in your own currency) and this now is a serious issue. It
taints
everything that the IETF does and participates in. [...]
The logic you employed to reach this conclusion completely evades me.
--
j h woodyatt <jhw(_at_)wetware(_dot_)com>