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Re: Should the IESG manage or not?

2005-07-01 11:08:51
    Date:        Thu, 30 Jun 2005 21:12:07 -0400
    From:        Jeffrey Hutzelman <jhutz(_at_)cmu(_dot_)edu>
    Message-ID:  
<D28F9326E3312065397163F7(_at_)sirius(_dot_)fac(_dot_)cs(_dot_)cmu(_dot_)edu>

  | Note that I would consider it entirely reasonable for the IESG to say 
that 
  | something "conflicts with work in the IETF" on the grounds that its 
  | deployment would break the Internet, since preserving the stability of 
the 
  | Internet is a fundamental part of _all_ IETF work.

I cannot agree with that.   Preserving the stability of the internet is
the responsibility of the internet operators.   There's nothing the IETF
can do, one way or the other, to affect that.  

Rubbish.  IETF can make recommendations to Internet operators, based on
its extensive knowledge of how Internet protocols were designed to work
and how they tend to be used, and its ability to understand the likely
effects of a particular change on Internet stability and
interoperability.  IETF's recommendations are influential partially
because operators recognize the collective expertise of IETF
participants and IETF's ability to make sane compromises between
competing interests. The recommendations are also influential because
even though IETF doesn't always make the best recommendations, there's
something to be said for uniformity in operations across the Internet
and most operators understand this. (note that I didn't say that
operators bow and scrape to follow IETF recommendations, just that the
recommendations are influential).

in a nutshell: IETF doesn't have control, but it does have influence.

Keith

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