On May 25, 2011, at 7:27 AM, Bob Friesenhahn wrote: > On Wed, 25 May 2011, Paul Kraus wrote: > >> The standards committees I have observed (I have never been on >> one) are generally in the audio space and not the computer, but while >> they welcome "guests", the decisions are reserved for the committee >> members. Committee membership is not open to anyone who wants to be on >> the committee, but those with a degree of expertise in the area the >> committee is addressing. Anything else leads to madness. > > Not necessarily madness. As I mentioned to Garrett, the IETF > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETF) holds totally open meetings and mailing > lists. Anyone who shows up can vote on whatever is discussed and all votes > count as equal. There is no need to pay for attendance, no need to apply for > acceptance, no need to show an ID at the door, and anyone can just walk in, > yet actions and demonstrated implementations speak louder than any words. > Anyone can write an RFC as long as it meets certain standards. However, the > IETF also has a "working code" requirement and demands several independent > interoperable implementations before some new interface can be accepted for > the standards track. > > The method the IETF uses seems to be particularly immune to vendor > interference. Vendors who want to participate in defining an interoperable > standard can achieve substantial success. Vendors who only want their own > way encounter deafening silence and isolation.
Actually, this doesn't always work. There have been attempts to stack the deck and force votes at IETF. One memorable meeting was more of a flashmob than a standards meeting :-) The key stakeholders and contributors of ZFS code are represented in the ZFS Working Group. This is very similar to working groups in other standards bodies and organizations. -- richard _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
