[31006] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: bring sense to the ietf - volunteer for nomcom
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Craig Partridge)
Tue Sep 5 07:09:55 2000
Message-Id: <200009051108.HAA38141@aland.bbn.com>
To: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com>
Cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-reply-to: Your message of "05 Sep 2000 00:47:26 PDT."
<20000905074726.29598.cpmta@c004.sfo.cp.net>
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 07:08:08 -0400
From: Craig Partridge <craig@aland.bbn.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
In message <20000905074726.29598.cpmta@c004.sfo.cp.net>, Sean Donelan writes:
>I think the IETF is valuable, but what do you tell investors when they
>ask what's in it for them?
Various folks make various arguments but I think the most successful one has
been:
* The IETF makes the standards (for good or ill) and the quality of those
standards, and, indeed, the decision about what to standardize has an
impact on operations. By attending, you can help avoid disasterous
standards and help shape useful ones.
* IETF is one of the better ways for groups of vendors together to influence
standards (more powerful than one on one meetings).
That said, you also need to be clear you don't attend unnecessarily. Don't
go for the whole week -- go for the meetings you need (so book the hotel for
the week, and then when you see the program of meetings, alter your
reservation). Don't send a lot of people. Send a junior person if senior
participation is needed.
Craig
[Side note: I was a founding member of the IESG at a time that I was providing
technical & user support for NSFNET.]
