Re: Concerns

[John Lawler <[e-mail]>]

>Well, at the IPSEC wg, what I saw was a small group of people who wanted
>SKIP, a small group of people who wanted ISAKMP (and I won't try to
>characterize which of the two small groups were bigger, more technically
>comptentent, or has better-substantiated paternity), but the vast
>majority of the room were from vendor-types who said, "we don't care
>which one you choose; we're not competent to make that choice.  But we
>don't have to implement two solutions.  Pick one."
That is not the case. I estimated the attendance for the votes at about
250-300 people (almost all of whom said they had read both specs, BTW), and
each vote showed half the hands in the room voting yes, and half the room
voting no, for each question asked. There seemed to be very few abstentions
at all, so I cannot agree with your characterization of either SKIP or
ISAKMP having the support of only a small group. As to the particular vote
you mention, I believe that only perhaps 12-15 people raised their hands as
having no preference (which shocked me, by the way--I also expected small
core groups and lots of abstentions).

I bring this up not for petty contridiction but to point out that the
support for *both* SKIP and ISAKMP seems rather strong and deep, and I do
not feel that those results are going to change significantly in the near
future. Since the world will not wait forever for us to resolve these
differences, since an "ex cathedra" decision one way or the other will only
serve to alienate fully half the group, and since there are good features in
both, I recommend that we 1) one last attempt at unification where everyone
makes a *good faith effort* to accomodate the other (see my reply to Hilarie
for details), or 2) let them both leave the nest and see which one thrives. 

-John