I would like to modify this thread of discussion slightly. Are we an
effective
standards committee?
My opinion is no.
I agree, but for different reasons.
There is much room to improve our working groups efficiency. I believe that
the mechanism instituted by Steve Kent
(justdoit(_at_)sub-rosa(_dot_)bbn(_dot_)com and
letswait(_at_)sub-rosa(_dot_)bbn(_dot_)com) provides a very valuable means to
improve our
standards development process. Rather than having a multitude of opinions
spewed into my electronic in box, this approach offers a means to review
collected coherent comments.
I disagree. The biggest problem we have had with this effort has been the lack
of specific suggestions, corrections, and addenda. It is fine to criticize, but
the lack of specific feedback as to how things could be improved has been
nearly total up until very recently.
It is yet to be seen whether or not this mechanism will produce additional
comments with sufficient detail to be useful. It it does that's great.
I plan to submit my opinions to "letswait(_at_)sub-rosa(_dot_)bbn(_dot_)com"
before the January
22 deadline. I have very little confidence in the current editing process for
PEM-MIME. I hope that the collection of comments in this (non-binding)
referendum will help resolve and correct the issues with the specification.
Frankly, I question your ability to assess the editing process in this way. You
have been asked at least once, in response to general comments you made, to
provide specific feedback about what's right and what's wrong in these
documents. You have done nothing along these lines to the best of my knowledge.
It is very hard to know what to do with vague and insubstantial criticisms. I
believe very firmly that the authors have been quite responsive when provided
with detailed feedback on various issues. (It helps to suggest new prose.)
Fortunately some individuals have in fact gone to the trouble of providing such
feedback recently, as the new version of the security multiparts documents
shows and the upcoming revision of the MIME/PEM document will show.
Ned