----- Original Message ----- From: "Hesham Soliman (ERA)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > => But as Robert Elz mentioned in a previous email, this > is the same argument for IP addresses really. All we can > do is mandate it in the standard, and if routers don't > follow it, then they're breaking communication. -----
Some countries have an approach to standards where they "mandate" and the people all listen and nod their heads without asking questions. The United States develops standards in the open marketplace. VHS and Betamax is a good example. NTSC and PAL have an interesting history. The Minister of Communication of Canada once pointed out to me that Canada and the U.S., even though similar in culture, are very different in this area. He said that Canada can not afford for any of their engineers to fail, they do not have enough. As a result, the government and various groups spend enormous amounts of time mandating standards to make sure that the engineers are endorsed and succeed. He pointed out that the U.S. is like an arena full of gladiators, and standards are set by the marketplace. He also pointed out that many Canadians leave Canada to work in the U.S. because they prefer to see their ideas live of die on their own merits, rather than the backing of some clueless group that mandates what they likely do not even understand. The ICANN/IETF crowd is a perfect example. They can now go to Africa to preach their gospel. In the U.S. and parts of Canada, people are developing standards in the marketplace, with rough consensus and working code. Jim Fleming 2002:[IPv4]:000X:03DB http://www.IPv8.info -------------------------------------------------------------------- IETF IPng Working Group Mailing List IPng Home Page: http://playground.sun.com/ipng FTP archive: ftp://playground.sun.com/pub/ipng Direct all administrative requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------
