Subject: Re: Working documents repository

From: Eric Brunner <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 14:48:56 -0400

> The REAL problem is that increasing scrutiny of IETF publications
> without changing perception of RFC as Standard will ultimately render
> all RFCs meaningless as long as some RFCs are not standards.  As the
> population of the Internet grows, more and more public examination of
> the IETF is inevitable.

Meaningless to whom? Odd sort of people hypothesised, IMO.

Examination by what criteria? Those presently used?

Charts aren't simplified to ease the desultory reading pleasures of the
non-mariner. I don't wish to see the series(s) acquire neologisms in the
label-space that substitutes for an awareness of content, and the context
of production, whether as a PS, Informational, or Individal Howl.

Cheers,
Eric

p.s. What label would have been appropriate for rfc-16? For rfc-5?
Labels that "mean" more than disambiguating, make blithe choices, as
a modern version of rfc-16 would be, less ... gracefull.

---

From: "John W. Noerenberg" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 12:27:07 -0700

>Meaningless to whom? Odd sort of people hypothesised, IMO.

Perhaps "useless" would have been a better choice of words.  I am 
envisioning a growing haystack of RFCs with the needles of standards 
increasingly difficult to find.  It is a scaling problem.  How do we 
scale the set of standards that comprise the Internet as the Internet 
continues to grow in size and complexity?

Certainly a particular RFC describing a particular standard protocol 
is not meaningless.  But taken as a body, if  a needle is what you 
are seeking, a haystack is nothing more than fodder.

>Examination by what criteria? Those presently used?

Yes, certainly.  And perhaps more intimately as the ability to 
actively participate without being physically present becomes 
increasingly available.  Ultimately, it will be by whatever criteria 
the public chooses, as long as we choose to be a public organization.

best,

john  w noerenberg, ii
[email-masked]
   ------------------------------------------------------------------
   "YOU THINK THEY GIVE YOU THE SHIVERS NOW," Owen said.
  "JUST WAIT UNTIL HE STARTS MAKING DECISIONS!"
   -- John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, 1989
   ------------------------------------------------------------------

---

From: "John W. Noerenberg" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 12:27:07 -0700

best,

john  w noerenberg, ii
[email-masked]