> Fred Baker wrote:
> > Let me try to say all that succinctly:
> >
> > "The Internet Engineering Task Force provides a forum for the
> > discussion and development of white papers and specifications for
> > the engineering issues of the Internet. This discussion builds on
> > hard lessons learned in research and operational environments, and
> > necessarily includes speakers from those communities. Vendors offer
> > wisdom on what can be built and made to work in their products, and
> > may bring customer or market issues whose owners cannot or will not
> > bring themselves.
This misses a great deal. I think one needs to consider the Mission of
other standards organizations such as IEEE, ANSI, the ITU, and The Open
Group, to name a few examples:
The mission of The Open Group is to drive the creation of Boundaryless
Information Flow achieved by:
* Working with customers to capture, understand and address current
and emerging requirements, establish policies, and share best practices;
* Working with suppliers, consortia and standards bodies to develop
consensus and facilitate interoperability, to evolve and integrate
specifications and open source technologies;
* Offering a comprehensive set of services to enhance the operational
efficiency of consortia; and
* Developing and operating the industry's premier certification
service and encouraging procurement of certified products.
IEEE Vision and Mission
VISION
To advance global prosperity by fostering technological innovation,
enabling members' careers and promoting community world-wide.
MISSION
The IEEE promotes the engineering process of creating, developing,
integrating, sharing, and applying knowledge about electro and information
technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity and the profession.
ANSI MISSION
To enhance both the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the U.S.
quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus
standards and conformity assessment systems, and safeguarding their
integrity
Cardinal Principals
Openness. Any materially affected and interested party has the ability to
participate.
Balance. The standards development process should have a balance of
interests and participants from diverse interest categories shall be
sought.
Due Process. All objections shall have an attempt made towards their
resolution. Interests who believe they have been treated unfairly shall
have a right to appeal.
Consensus. More than a majority, but not necessarily unanimity.
> > The intended goal is well characterized as 'community memory' -
> > written observations and wisdom as well as protocols and operational
> > procedures defined - to enable the datagram internet to scalably
> > deliver relevant services in transit and edge networks."
I don't think it has anything to do with "community memory", nor is it
limited to the 'datagram internet', nor is it even limited to services in
'transit and edge netorks'. Quite obviously, it is useful to peering and
private and other kinds of networks, but the types of networks aren't
important. What is important is that the stardards are techincally useful,
and publicly deliberated.