Standards, was Re: [MLB-WIRELESS] Resignation

[Adrian Close]

On Mon, 18 Mar 2002, Ben Anderson wrote:

> What worries me is that every system I've seen that starts off with 'careful
> design' that's a step away from "freeness" evolves towards "less freedom".
> Animal farm, George Orwell, for example (please think about the concepts I'm
> talking about, don't flame me "socialism is nothing like what we're doing"

Thank you for mentioning that book.  Anyone who hasn't read Animal Farm
should consider doing so!  I think a lot of its subject matter is very
applicable to our situation, if only as a cautionary tale.

My thoughts for network design and standards basically revolve around the
idea that if the/a group propose some open standards for network
configuration/deployment/operation et al and those standards are
inherently good, then people will adopt them and use them.

If they're not good, people will vote with their feet and hopefully go on
to build something that _is_ good.  If people want to talk to each other
(this is why we're bothering with this wireless stuff, right?) then
they'll negotiate some mutually comprehensible set of protocols.

There's no need for a huge corporate structure to make this happen.  You
just need an open forum for discussion (which we have) and some smart
people (which we also have).  You _might_ also want some kind of person to
co-ordinate standards (look at Linus/Linux for an example), but this is
not strictly necessary.

There are many parallels with what we are doing and the building of the
original Internet.  Hence my comments about the IETF.

Let's build some network and have fun.

Adrian Close			email:	adrian at close.wattle.id.au
1 Old Gippsland Rd.		web:	http://www.close.wattle.id.au/~adrian
Lilydale, VIC, 3140, Australia	mobile:	+61 412 385 201

P.S.  A cautionary quote about standards - "the good thing about standards
is that there are so many to choose from".  ;)


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