Anybody can participate in the IETF (Was: Why is IPv6 broken?)

Tue Jul 12 15:28:58 UTC 2011

Leo,

Maybe we can fix this by:

a) bringing together larger groups of clueful operators in the IETF
b) deciding which issues interest them
c) showing up and being vocal as a group in protocol developing working groups

To some degree, we already do this in the IETF OPS area, but judging by your comments, we don't do it nearly enough.

Comments?

               Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: Leo Bicknell [mailto:bicknell at ufp.org] 
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 3:35 PM
To: nanog at nanog.org
Subject: Re: Anybody can participate in the IETF (Was: Why is IPv6 broken?)

In a message written on Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 06:16:09PM +0200, Jeroen Massar wrote:
> Ehmmmm ANYBODY, including you, can sign up to the IETF mailing lists 
> and participate there, just like a couple of folks from NANOG are already doing.

The way the IETF and the operator community interact is badly broken.

The IETF does not want operators in many steps of the process.  If you try to bring up operational concerns in early protocol development for example you'll often get a "we'll look at that later" response, which in many cases is right.  Sometimes you just have to play with something before you worry about the operational details.  It also does not help that many operational types are not hardcore programmers, and can't play in the sandbox during the major development cycles.