Protocols at the Point of a Gun
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 02:38 PM 4/9/96 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
The internet and the culture are coming into conflict in a big way, and I don't believe that both of them can survive.
Perry
Well this is as good a time and place as any to ask the question that none of the opposition seems to have asked (perhaps because they don't know enough to ask): How do you force geographically dispersed nodes on a distributed network to adopt a set of officially mandated protocols? But first a reading assignment: "How Anarchy Works--Inside the Internet Engineering Task Force" from Wired. http://www.hotwired.com/wired/3.10/departments/electrosphere/ietf.html So, now we know that the IETF has been pretty successful as a means of standards setting. We then have to go on to discuss how The Great Enemy might undertake to intervene in this process. Questions: 1) Are there any official agencies currently involved in drafting substitute protocols? 2) Do the public employees on the IETF behave any differently from the private employees? 3) Do the world's governments have the programming talent? 4) Do the world's governments have a way to get users at all levels to adopt their protocols? I don't know the answer to these questions. We know that governments would like to impose things like the Simple Tax Transfer Protocol on the Net as well as Is A Person (and Is A Minor) Protocols. The Heathen Chinee have proposed their own entry into the protocol design process as have many of the other governments. Do they have any idea yet how to go about it? Do we? DCF -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMWu7OYVO4r4sgSPhAQFw8wP/SONzr+vOKaIw3NQPTF4o1xk4hVFrlWEs y5fLcrh2jHlejPMvdoTNJIvZ0nsgLNJU8QsW+goRzl9B37/8U9oG8A0CgvOu9Wr9 2aP+zkHjTYldvtGuOWXNoq7tdQDGY5cGzMTJZO0WRwMBhpO+BnOGPPN2MqxMOPIK vbIgly4DEI8= =57wn -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Duncan Frissell wrote:
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At 02:38 PM 4/9/96 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
The internet and the culture are coming into conflict in a big way, and I don't believe that both of them can survive.
Perry
Well this is as good a time and place as any to ask the question that none of the opposition seems to have asked (perhaps because they don't know enough to ask): How do you force geographically dispersed nodes on a distributed network to adopt a set of officially mandated protocols?
But first a reading assignment: "How Anarchy Works--Inside the Internet Engineering Task Force" from Wired.
http://www.hotwired.com/wired/3.10/departments/electrosphere/ietf.html
So, now we know that the IETF has been pretty successful as a means of standards setting. We then have to go on to discuss how The Great Enemy might undertake to intervene in this process.
Given that the IETF has no "official" (whatever that means) sanction, what would prevent any other organization from coming in and trying to take over their turf? I saw an article today (sorry, can't remember where) that suggested a brewing fight between IETF and W3C over future HTTP and HTML standards. If someone stands up and says that the IETF is becoming too slow and overcome by bickering (not my opinion, just a what if), and that their new group is better suited to setting standards, who decides who is right, and based on what criteria? It seems that one aspect of anarchy is that anyone could move in and replace "their anarchy" with the "new anarchy". Just some philosophical pondering late one night... --Jeff -- Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist Netscape Communication Corporation jsw@netscape.com - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw Any opinions expressed above are mine.
Jeff Weinstein writes:
Given that the IETF has no "official" (whatever that means) sanction,
I have no idea what that means. The IETF exists. Who would sanction it? Why would that sanction matter?
what would prevent any other organization from coming in and trying to take over their turf?
Nothing, except that all the people who "count" in the internet, a.k.a. "The Community", pay attention to us. If we become irrelevant to the community, we will fade away, which is as it should be.
I saw an article today (sorry, can't remember where) that suggested a brewing fight between IETF and W3C over future HTTP and HTML standards.
I think way too much is made of that. Most of the same suspects attend both meetings from what I can tell, and the IETF isn't really under the illusion that we control HTML. Perry
participants (3)
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Duncan Frissell -
Jeff Weinstein -
Perry E. Metzger