Subject: RE: The power of the IETF

From: Eric Nay <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 16:16:27 -0800

A recent article in PCWeek online
(http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,1014144,00.html) refers
obliquely to the power of the IETF.  As quoted,

"Also on Tuesday, Microsoft submitted its DirSync technology to the Internet
Engineering Task Force, injecting it into the directory synchronization
standards proccess."  "The standards process appears to have become a
political battleground."

I've been a lurker here for a year now, patiently reading through Bob's
rants and other's replies.  I was hoping for a little clarification.  Where,
exactly, does anyone (such as MS) submit their proposals?  I know it not to
this mailing list, as I've seen almost no technical discussion in the past
year.  Where is the beef?

Any guidance as to where REAL technical discussions can be found would be
appreciated.

Eric Nay
[email-masked]

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From: "Theodore Y. Ts'o" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 21:37:49 -0500 (EST)

From: Eric Nay <[email-masked]>
   Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 16:16:27 -0800

As you have correctly deduced, most of the real work doesn't happen on
this list.  Unfortunately, the rants from a few crazies have driven
driven the value of the list down to near zero, but even before that the
lion's share of the work of the IETF happens in the IETF working groups,
both when they meet in person at the IETF meetings and in the IETF
working group mailing lists.

If you're really interested in participating in the IETF, or learning
how the IETF works, I suggest you read some of the following documents:

The Tao of the IETF
	http://www.ietf.org/tao.html

RFC 2026 The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3
	http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2026.txt

RFC 2028 The Organizations Involved in the IETF Standards Process
	http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2028.txt

						- Ted

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From: "Theodore Y. Ts'o" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 21:37:49 -0500 (EST)

The Tao of the IETF

						- Ted

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From: Paul Hoffman / IMC <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 12:55:03 -0600

>        http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2028.txt

A very unofficial overview of these documents and many more can also be 
found at <http://www.imc.org/novice-ietf.html>.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium

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From: Paul Hoffman / IMC <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 12:55:03 -0600

--Paul Hoffman, Director

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From: Fred Baker <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 08:05:00 +0800

At 08:16 AM 3/18/99 -0800, Eric Nay wrote:
>standards proccess." 

It also points out the lack of clue in the press. Posting an internet draft
doesn't constitute creation of a standard.

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From: Fred Baker <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 08:05:00 +0800