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Re: IETF mission boundaries (Re: IESG proposed statement on the IETF mission )

2003-10-16 11:39:45

That is wrong or at least a gross overstatement. 

If  that's  what  you think,  I  invite  you  to  make  a list  of  all  the
IETF-standardized protocols and explain how  they are all (or even more than
50% of them) needed to make the Internet work.

There have been many things that the IETF has chosen to step away from but
that  ran  and  run  over  the Internet.   Some  graphics  standards  come
immediately to my  mind ... Those graphics standards were  kept out of the
IETF not  because the  working groups involved  thought they  didn't think
they were experts, but because the subject was out of scope for the IETF." 

I'm not  familiar with this particular  case, but I don't  see why protocols
for distributing graphics would be thought  to fall outside the scope of the
IETF, any more  than protocols for distributing voice  or video.  Of course,
graphics standards  that have nothing  do with distribution of  the graphics
over IP would be out of scope.

No committee is ever able to limit itself on grounds of insufficient
expertise.  

Now, there  is a  gross overstatement!  For  everyone who  proclaims himself
(rightly or  wrongly) to be  an expert on  some topic, there are  always two
other people who claim  that he is clueless.  It's not uncommon  for a WG to
refuse  to  pick up  a  topic  because the  consensus  is  that the  topic's
proponents are clueless.  











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