> From: Phillip Hallam-Baker [hallam@xxxxxxxxx] > > People can argue about process, RFC formats and governance but it > should be beyond argument that any institution that cannot recruit > younger members is going to die. Well, the Internet as we know it is 30 years old now, and not changing nearly as fast as it was in its infancy. IPv4 is being displaced only because we ran out of addresses -- IPv6 should be good for a couple of centuries. It's true that institutions that cannot recruit the young die. But most institutions recruit the young when positions of power open up -- that is, when older members start dieing, or there is a huge shift in the politics or underlying needs of the "customer" population. The federal government of the United States was dominated by the clique of its revolutionary leaders for 40 years, and hasn't had much trouble recruiting enough new blood to maintain its power (if not its agility). Similarly with two of the oldest and most powerful gerontocracies in the world, the government of China and the Roman Catholic Church. Dale