On 8/27/19 8:52 PM, Owen DeLong wrote:
On Jul 26, 2019, at 21:59 , Doug Barton <do...@dougbarton.us
<mailto:do...@dougbarton.us>> wrote:
Responding to no one in particular, and not representing views of any
current or former employer ...
I find all of this hullabaloo to be ... fascinating. A little
background to frame my comments below. I was GM of the IANA in the
early 2000's, I held a tech license from 1994 through 2004 (I gave it
up because life changed, and I no longer had time; but I still have
all my toys, err, I mean, gear); and I have known two of the ARDC
board members and one of the advisors listed at
https://www.ampr.org/amprnet/ for over fifteen years. I consider them
all friends, and trust their judgement explicitly. One of them I've
known for over 20 years, and consider a close and very dear friend.
There have been a number of points over the past 30 years where anyone
who genuinely cared about this space could have used any number of
mechanisms to raise concerns over how it's been managed, and by whom.
I cannot help but think that some of this current sound and fury is an
excuse to express righteous indignation for its own sake. The folks
involved with ARDC have been caring for the space for a long time.
From my perspective, seeing the writing on the wall regarding the
upcoming friction around IPv4 space as an asset with monetary value
increasing exponentially, they took quite reasonable steps to create a
legal framework to ensure that their ability to continue managing the
space would be protected. Some of you may remember that other groups,
like the IETF, were taking similar steps before during and after that
same time frame. Sure, you can complain about what was done, how it
was done, etc.; but where were you then? Are you sure that at least
part of your anger isn't due to the fact that all of these things have
happened over the last 20 years, and you had no idea they were happening?
Certainly part of my anger is that I did not know some of them were
happening.
Fair enough.
However, most of my anger is around the fact that:
1.It never in a million years would have occurred to me that these
people who I also consider friends and also trust explicitly
would take this particular action without significant prior (and much
wider) consultation with the amateur radio community.
2.I believe this was done quietly and carefully orchestrated
specifically to avoid any risk of successful backlash by the time
the community became aware of this particular intended action.
I have actually been in this exact same position, of knowing that a
thing is the right thing to do, but also knowing that doing it would
create a poop-storm. I don't know if your analysis is right or not, but
if I had been in their shoes I probably would have done the same thing.
If you want to say shame on us for trusting these people and not
noticing the severe corporate governance problems with ARDC until
they took this particular action, then I suppose that’s a fair comment.
No, I am not attempting to shame anyone (although I admit my message was
a bit testy). My point is simply that all of this after-the-fact
griping, in the absence of any proven harm, is probably not as much
about the thing as it is about self-culpability in what lead up to the
thing. But as humans it's hard to direct that anger towards ourselves,
so it gets directed outwardly. So, no shame, as it's a very human
reaction. But a little more self-awareness would not be out of place.
So let's talk a little about what "stewardship" means. Many folks have
complained about how ARDC has not done a good job of $X function that
stewards of the space should perform. Do you think having some money
in the bank will help contribute to their ability to do that? Has
anyone looked at how much of the space is actually being used now, and
what percentage reduction in available space carving out a /10
actually represents? And nowadays when IPv6 is readily available
essentially "for free," how much is the amateur community actually
being affected by this?
All of those are good questions. I don’t have data to answer any of them
So shouldn't actually looking at the space to determine if any real harm
was done be the next step?
Doug
