Hi Pieter, At 04:33 30-10-2009, Pieter Hintjens wrote:
Technical designs should not be opinion-driven at all. There are optimal (provably optimal) solutions for any well-defined problem. If two people do not agree on such solutions then either they are solving different problems (this is most common), or they are not aiming for optimal solutions but instead familiar and/or pre-existing solutions (this is also common). Or they are just incompetent with delusions of competence (perhaps most common).
It is much more complicated that that and it is not always about finding the optimal solution.
A better way to resolve the conflicts of interest that many of us bring to such discussions is to create competition between solutions, i.e. multiple protocols that implementors can choose. Over time that will drive the solutions towards an optimum.
Having multiple protocols for the same problem space doesn't favor interoperability. One or more of the protocols will take over which is like "let the market decide".
This is all opinion, of course and does not answer the question of how the IETF works, but may be a useful guideline for knowing how to resolve conflicts of opinion. Namely, if you start by saying "I think", you are probably wrong. :-)
I don't think there is a guideline for knowing how to resolve conflicts of opinion. :-) There are a lot of factors involved. Strong opposing opinions are resolved in different ways. There is generally a person or a group of persons who come up with a proposal on how to reach consensus.
Regards,-sm
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