Subject: Re: Observations on (non-technical) changes affecting IETF operations
From: Jari Arkko <[email-masked]>
To: Phillip Hallam-Baker <[email-masked]>, "Charles Eckel (eckelcu)" <[email-masked]>
Cc: IETF <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2016 16:17:42 +0200
List-Id: IETF-Discussion <ietf.ietf.org>

Phillip, Charles,

> 1) A draft describing the protocol
>   a) Text describing protocol
>   b) Examples from running code
>   c) Reference section
> 2) Reference implementation

Yes, excellent!

> We need to consider how to make open source code readily available to community that might be interested in it, and to do so in a timely manner. We also need to consider the target audience, the end users of the code and specification. Much of the great work the IETF does never gets adopted. We need more focus on end user community and adoption. We need to consider barriers to deployability. Hackathons are a small step in right direction, but I thing we should consider offering training and keep end users in mind from the start and throughout the standardization process.

Yes, but I would approach this from a slightly different end-point. It is always the case that convincing others of something new is a lot of work. In my mind, standards or open source work both succeed best when performed by those who actually are deploying and in charge of building mainstream systems (commercial or open source) for the topic. So it is not so much about IETF folk reaching the adopters, but having the adopters drive the IETF work…

Jari