Re: Representation of end-users at the IETF

[Paul Hoffman <paul.hoffman at vpnc.org>]

At 12:34 PM +0200 9/21/07, Patrick Vande Walle wrote:
> I founded an ISOC chapter some years ago among others to see how users
> could provide input to the standards development process. However, there
> is no mechanism to consult, collect and present such information in an
> organized way.
>
> You could say that, as an ISOC trustee, I would need to submit a
> proposal to the board, and this is exactly what I intend to do.

Great!

> Keep in
> mind though that those volunteers in chapters may expect that some
> consideration and feedback is being given to their (sometimes non
> technical) comments. If they are by default considered irrelevant,
> hobbyist rubbish, this may kill the process in the egg.

Maybe the proposal should come from someone less pessimistic than 
you, then. A good proposer would be someone who believes that they 
can bridge the disparate communities and is willing to participate in 
the bridging work, not just the work on one side of the bridge or the 
other. There are plenty of people at ISOC who have spent more than a 
decade working on both sides of the bridge.

> Part of the goal of this discussion, for me, is to see how the IETF
> community welcomes such a proposal. If I get the impression that it is
> not supported, I won't spend more time on it.

Spending the time of an organization that is meant to be bridging the 
communities seems more worthwhile for everyone than asking one group 
to greatly expand its scope into areas where it has no particular 
skills.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--VPN Consortium

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