Re: Protocols at the Point of a Gun

[Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>]

At 11:50 PM 4/10/96 -0700, Jeff Weinstein wrote:

>  Given that the IETF has no "official" (whatever that means) sanction,
>what would prevent any other organization from coming in and trying to
>take over their turf?  I saw an article today (sorry, can't remember
>where) that suggested a brewing fight between IETF and W3C over future
>HTTP and HTML standards.  If someone stands up and says that the IETF 
>is becoming too slow and overcome by bickering (not my opinion, just
>a what if), and that their new group is better suited to setting standards,
>who decides who is right, and based on what criteria?  It seems that
>one aspect of anarchy is that anyone could move in and replace "their
>anarchy" with the "new anarchy".
>
>  Just some philosophical pondering late one night...
>
>	--Jeff

Why nothing.  Even your employer has done a bit of this protocol "forcing".
The actual question though is would a successor organization(s) do anything
significantly different.  The question is can a *government* order
protocols.  IBM couldn't (after a while).  If the government can't order
protocols and protocols are created by (rough) mutual consent, I'll be happy
and Dorothy won't be.

DCF