Hi, This thread is helpful to me. > > This is somewhat of a vicious cycle -- operators participate > > less, and so the IETF understands less about how their > > networks run. This leads to solutions that don't understand > > the real world, and so operators lose faith/interest in IETF, > > and participate even less. > > ultimately call the IETF's legitimacy and long-term future into > question. As you suggest, we may have good vendor participation > but the operators are ultimately the folks who pay the vendor's > bills. I agree so far. But who pays the operators' bills, and do we need to encourage participation at that level as well? Adrian