hit metering as 'Proposed Standard'

My current reading of the situation:

I think we have clear evidence that there is significant interest in
forwarding this draft along standards track.  However, we also have a
serious and well reasoned argument that the proposal would cause more
harm than good if implemented.

Path 1: modify the proposal to remove this objection
Path 2: leave the proposal alone and show that it does more good
        than harm.

Both the benefit and the assertions about 'more harm than good' are
expressed as conjectures with out any explicit statistical data to
back them up. To pursue Path 2, we can either:

 Path 1A: release the specification as 'Experimental' as a way of
          encouraging people in the community to gather data 
 Path 1B: release the specification as 'Proposed Standard' but
          with an applicability statement that limits its deployment
          to 'experimental' deployment
 Path 1C: Wait until those vendors whose customers are eager to deploy
          this solution to supply some data that will convince
          us that the proposal does more good than harm.

I'm not sure I see many other ways of proceeding. I don't think we
will want to proceed with 'proposed standard' unless the objections
about 'more harm than good' are addressed convincingly.

In any case, the other comments on the range of applicability,
conformance requirements, etc. will need to be addressed.

I don't think we need any more testimonials about who does or doesn't
believe this proposal or want it or think it's important. We just need
some assertions based on facts that we can review about whether the
proposal actually addresses the problem it is intended to address.

Regards,

Larry

Received on Tuesday, 26 November 1996 05:58:34 UTC