Protocols at the Point of a Gun

[Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>]

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At 02:38 PM 4/9/96 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote:

>The internet and the culture are coming into conflict in a big way,
>and I don't believe that both of them can survive.
>
>Perry

Well this is as good a time and place as any to ask the question that
none of the opposition seems to have asked (perhaps because they don't
know enough to ask):  How do you force geographically dispersed nodes
on a distributed network to adopt a set of officially mandated protocols?

But first a reading assignment:  "How Anarchy Works--Inside the Internet
Engineering Task Force" from Wired.

http://www.hotwired.com/wired/3.10/departments/electrosphere/ietf.html

So, now we know that the IETF has been pretty successful as a means
of standards setting.  We then have to go on to discuss how The Great
Enemy might undertake to intervene in this process.  

Questions:

1)  Are there any official agencies currently involved in drafting 
substitute protocols?

2) Do the public employees on the IETF behave any differently from the
private employees?

3)  Do the world's governments have the programming talent?
 
4)  Do the world's governments have a way to get users at all levels
to adopt their protocols?

I don't know the answer to these questions.

We know that governments would like to impose things like the Simple
Tax Transfer Protocol on the Net as well as Is A Person (and Is A Minor)
Protocols.  The Heathen Chinee have proposed their own entry into the
protocol design process as have many of the other governments.  Do
they have any idea yet how to go about it?  Do we?

DCF


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