Reaction: Mend, don’t end, the IETF
Is it time for the IETF to give up? Over at CircleID, Martin Geddes makes a case that it is, in fact, time for the IETF to “fade out.” The case he lays out is compelling—first, the IETF is not really an engineering organization. There is a lot of running after “success modes,” but very little consideration of failure modes and how they can and should be guarded against. Second, the IETF “the IETF takes on problems for which it lacks an ontological and epistemological framework to resolve.”
In essence, in Martin’s view, the IETF is not about engineering, and hasn’t ever really been.
The first problem is, of course, that Martin is right. The second problem is, though, that while he hints at the larger problem, he incorrectly lays it at the foot of the IETF. The third problem is the solutions Martin proposes will not resolve the problem at hand.
First things first: Martin is right. The IETF is a mess, and is chasing after success, rather than attending to failure. I do not think this is largely a factor of a lack of engineering skill, however—after spending 20 years working in the IETF, there Continue reading
The deal builds AT&T’s arsenal of millimeter wave spectrum.
The open source community derides projects that aren't truly open as 'faux-pen-source.'