Re: Common sense, process, and the nature of change

Hi -

> From: "Scott Brim" <swb(_at_)internet2(_dot_)edu>
> To: "Ted Hardie" <ted(_dot_)ietf(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com>
> Cc: "IETF" <ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
> Sent: Friday, November 09, 2012 6:32 AM
> Subject: Re: Common sense, process, and the nature of change
>
> Ted: Very nice but I would go further.  You believe that everyone in the
> IETF has either internalized the mission or will in the course of
> participating.  I think the IETF has already lost that unity of mission,
> particularly with the influx of corporate participants who were not
> around in the idealistic days.  For them the new normal is to use the
> IETF as a tool for creating competitive advantage -  ....
As I see it, that "new normal" has been the norm as long as I've been
working on IETF-related stuff - over twenty years.

Every organization has some sort of "mission", though the expectation
that all (or even most) participants have fully bought into and internalized
that mission is probably at best a useful fiction.  It is true that behaving as
though one is on board with the mission will help gain the cooperation
of others, and, in the case of the IETF's mission, yield useful work.  But
it's no guarantee, and my experience has been that other considerations
seem to take precedence over the IETF mission for many participants.
Even in those cases, however, behaving as though those participants
were primarily motivated by the IETF mission generally seems the best 
way to sustain the collaboration, or at least the illusion of collaboration,
and hopefully get *something* done.

Cynical? Perhaps, but in other threads we get glimpses of the litigious
hell that is the probable alternative.

Randy