Re: draft-ietf-v6ops-natpt-to-historic-00.txt

On Jul 2, 2007, at 9:43 AM, Christian Huitema wrote:

> In the old engineering attitude, working groups were created because
> several like-minded engineers wanted to develop some function, or
> protocol. It was important for them to get together, so they could
> voluntarily agree on the details. If they did not, each would develop
> their own version, and there will be no interoperability. The  
> result was
> documented in a set of RFC, so that whoever wanted to develop a
> compatible product could. IANA registries are used to ensure that when
> options arise, the options are numbered in an orderly manner.
>
> In the policy making attitude, working groups are created to control
> evolution of a particular function. The working group members are
> concerned that someone else might be implementing something harmful to
> the Internet. Their goal is not so much to develop products as to  
> ensure
> that non-conforming products do not get developed. IANA registries are
> used to control extensibility of the resulting protocols, to make sure
> that "bad" options never get a number.
>
> In short, the IETF evolved from an informal gathering where engineers
> will agree on how to do things, to a reactive body that mostly aims at
> controlling evolution of the Internet. Is that really what we want?

Hi Christian,

I'm not sure that we have much of a choice.  If there is no control  
over how the technology is used, then forces that see an advantage in  
doing something harmful to the Internet will come into play.  A fine  
example of this already exists with address space.  We understand  
that address space, while large, is finite, and we've created policy  
(delegated to the RIRs) to ensure that address space requests are  
duly justified.

We have created the ultimate Commons, and it is up to us to create  
the policy to prevent the associated tragedy.

Regards,
Tony

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