Re: Long-term IETF evolution thoughts

[Ross Finlayson <[e-mail]>]

> That's because email is STILL the very best collaboration tool available:
> nothing else even comes close.
> 
> 1. It's low-bandwidth.
> 2. It can be utilized offline.
> 3. It's asynchronous.
> 4. It can be used with the UI (mail client) of the participant's choice,
> 	as long as that mail client is reasonably well-behaved.
> 5. It automatically builds an archive.
> 6. Individual participants can build their own archives.
> 7. Which means that they can also search those archives with the
> 	mechanism of THEIR choice rather than one forced on them.
> 8. Which means that (taken as an aggregate) there are numerous ways
> 	to ensure the completeness and integrity of the archives.
> 9. It scales magnificently.
> 10. Privacy/security issues are minimized.
> 11. Attacks/abuse/etc. against it are well-understood and easy to handle.
> 12. It's extremely fault- and delay-tolerant.
> 13. It's push, not pull.
> 14. It's highly portable, e.g., list-rehosting and list software upgrading
> 	or changing are all relatively painless processes.
> 15. There are some very good choices for well-supported, mature,
> 	stable, open-source software to manage it.
> 16. (more which I'll omit for now)
> 
> Moving to web-based collaboration would be a massive downgrade: it's
> a truly horrible idea. 

Absolutely.  There’s no way in hell that I’m going to move from email to an ‘improved' system that would require me to have a web browser window open (or, more accurately, multiple web browser windows open - one for each ‘forum’ that I’m at least vaguely interested in), and hope that these windows update properly (without sending my browser’s CPU usage into the stratosphere) so that I don’t miss any notifications.

Although many ‘hipsters’ these days might not like email, an email address seems like a very low bar to require for participation in the IETF.

	Ross.