Subject: RE: CNET: Standards group beats back patent foes

From: "Christian Huitema" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 08:38:54 -0700

> > > I never cease to be amazed by those who think that
> > > nonparticipants have the right to impose their whims on the
> > > people who actually do the work.
> >
> > I never cease to be amazed by those who think that the users and
> > implementers of a technology have no right to attempt to influence
> > what that technology will look like.
> 
> I don't know anyone who thinks that.  But if you want to try to
specify
> details, you'd better be prepared to understand the effect of doing
so.

In fact, there is already a quite potent feedback loop, the deployment
in the Internet. Despite the standardese terminology that we use, the
IETF cannot in fact mandate a standard to the industry or the consumers.
The IETF produces specifications on how to provide a specific
functionality. The IETF does not have a monopoly on such specifications,
and there are often alternatives, such as for example the ITU's H.323
versus SIP, or the IEEE's 802.1X versus the PANA work. Sometimes, the
IETF itself produces competing specifications, such as IS-IS and OSPF,
CMOT and CMIP, or more recently XMMP and SIMPLE. Some may find that
messy, but the practical result is that users and implementers get to
choose. To put it simply, if a specification is "bad", it ends up not
being used and an alternative gets selected. And the selection is made
by developers and users, not IETF members.

-- Christian Huitema

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From: "Jeanette Hofmann" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 20:44:49 +0200

> by developers and users, not IETF members.

Still it doesn't hurt to talk to potential users and find out what they think about 
a specification before it gets standardized. Not least because it might 
increase the chances that it gets used. 
ENUM is a case where it would have made sense to notice and perhaps take 
into account users' concerns a bit earlier. 

Jeanette