On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 12:16 PM, Mark Atwood <me@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Much of what makes the IETF work is how it is very different from other standards bodies (such as IEEE, ANSI, ISO, NIST, ITU, etc etc).One key difference is that "groups" do not join the IETF.
That's part of it but IEEE, for example, has some standards groups with Individual membership (for example, both 802.1 and 802.11) and other standards groups with entity membership.
It is just as big a difference, for the organizations that you list, that they have reasonably precise rules for becoming a voting member and maintaining that status, whether the members are individuals or entities. For individuals, this usually involves meeting attendance and mandatory response to letter ballots or the like. My status as a voting member of 802.1 and 802.11 is not affected by changes in my employment or affiliation. Because voting membership is clearly defined, these organizations can do things by ballot/voting.
The membership of the IETF or any particular IETF working group is not well defined so decisions are made by some person or group (WG Chair, AD, IESG) who is empowered to judge rough consensus.
Thanks,
Donald
Cisco, IBM, MCI, or Linden Lab are not "members" of the IETF. No agency of the US government, or of any other government, is a "member" of the IETF. No university, non-profit, PIRG, PAC, or other "concerned citizens group", is a "member" of the IETF.Only individual people can be "members" of the IETF. And "membership" is mostly defined as "who shows up on the mailing list" and "who shows up at the meetings".There have been many cases in the history of the IETF where well known members who are in the middle of writing standards or of chairing various important working groups, who have worked for well-known large companies, will change employers, to other companies, to startups, or to personal sabbaticals switch around between industry, academia, research, and government, and this will not, does not, and should not, affect their position inside the IETF at all.It appears that sometimes people, inside and outside of the IETF, need to be reminded of this.If you want to write standards like the IEEE and ITU do it, you know where you can find them.But when you choose to participate in the IETF process, that is how it works.And if someone feels that anyone's change in employment status should affect their standing in any part of the IETF process, that person has missed the point, and needs to be pointedly reminded of their mistake.
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