On Sat, 27 Oct 2007, Andrew Newton wrote:
How do you square this against working group sessions that have
obviously been packed, where previous sessions were only moderately
attended but many new faces show up in anticipation of a very
important hum?
Well for starters, the drive-by hummers have to sit through the session
and be present for the discussion (note I intentionally did not say
listen). They have to demonstrate enough interest in the IETF process to
actually pay the costs of attending the session. And under IETF process,
concensus isn't determined in a F2F meeting.
The IETF is supposed to be fostering the engineering of the Internet.
Refusing to foster the engineering process based on religious or political
or even phantom economic concerns doesn't foster better operation of the
Internet.
It is in the greater interest of the Internet to have ANY protocol used to
define the meaning of some bits on the wires of the Internet well
documented. At least three reasons come to mind .. a) I can better
understand the impact of the protocol on other traffic and perhaps even
document issues to the originator of the traffic if what I observe doesn't
agree with the documentation AND seems to be causing my organization a
problem. b) Better to know about a documented patent claim than to have it
hidden and waiting to bite me when I re-invent it, etc. c) Folks concerned
about security vulnerabilities have starting point for their analysis
In my mind, experimental RFCs are created to allow two or more parties to
participate in an experiment in a well specified context and to allow
other parties to understand and comment on the experiment.
Informational RFCs exist to allow pretty much anyone to document a
'private' protocol for the reasons I've noted.
If an evil giant (pick your virtual enemy du jour) believes there is an
advantage for them in implementing and deploying patent encumbered
technology, they will do so with or without the technology being
documented by the IETF.
Hence, I am in favor of publishing Informational/Experimental RFCs which
provide clear documentation of engineering related topics of concern to
the design and operation of the Internet.
Dave Morris
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