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RE: Solving the right problems ...

2003-09-03 05:43:44
Is the sender anonymous or could we know name and affiliation?

 

Thanks,

 

Henry Sinnreich

MCI

 

  _____  

From: owner-ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org [mailto:owner-ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On 
Behalf Of
USPhoenix(_at_)aol(_dot_)com
Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 11:10 PM
To: vinton(_dot_)g(_dot_)cerf(_at_)mci(_dot_)com; ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: Solving the right problems ...

 

Vinton,

 

I bow to your position.  We once had offices very close to each other.
Remember MCI Mail? 

 

I am surprised you're back with MCI or whatever.  

 

But... 

 

Having quietly listened to what's being said, who's saying it, and where
they are ...

 

I am reading email from some good thinkers, obviously good people, not quite
open source gnomes, but close.   What's in it for me, or the world?
Obviously IETF picks some pretty nice places to meet.  And it is a pretty
impressive org to work with to pretend to care about making a difference.
Hey, if you're in academia and want to eat, you'd better get some corporate
funding.  Where do we go from here?  Eating good.  Unemployment bad.  

 

Well OK, what's best?  What's acceptable?  What keeps people employed?
Bottom up?  Start with the itsy-bitsy, bit-by-bit lower level protocol bits
and bytes and try to complete the Tower of Babel (which by the way I think
was in Iraq), or take an Alan Turing type deep thinking approach that no
employing company can or will afford?  (I wonder why he ate an apple spiced
with cyanide?)  

 

OK.

 

Here's the point more specifically.  Considering the DEEP ISSUES people are
beginning to discuss ( OK you do recognize them as deep issues right?) IETF
is at a crossroad.  A "paradigm shift" from within is not possible.  Not
given the funding employers.  Or the controlling employers.  Do you have the
chutzpah or the intellectual purity to see the future beyond your next pay
check?  Or, is this beyond the IETF, which I suspect is the case.  Or do we
just wait for the Tower to complete and buy a farm in Montana?