[ih] QUIC story

[Dave Crocker]

On 6/25/2022 5:11 AM, Jorge Amodio via Internet-history wrote:
> I'm not sure where you get your information from, but vendors have been
> deeply involved since the early days of the Internet, even ARPANet, BBN,
> Cisco, DEC, etc, were private companies and "vendors" since their inception
> and there has been a constant participation from companies and services
> providers for very long time.


There was something of a milestone, in this regard, around 1987. Prior 
to that, vendor participation was from a strongly-linked relationship to 
am Arpanet/Internet research contractors, or even from aDirect 
government contract  Permission-by-association, if you will.

After that, random commercial representatives were permitted to attend 
IETF meetings.

Not the sort of thing to add to a resume, but I turned out to be the 
test case that produced this change.

I was working for a company that produced after-market TCP/IP stacks.  
We had no direct involvement in any Internet R&D. Just a company selling 
its wares.  Given how rapidly Internet tech was changing at that time, I 
wanted us attending IETF meetings.

The IETF initially rejected the request, but I pressed.  Much discussion 
ensured, and I believe the decisive comment was Bob Braden's that was 
along the lines of "come on folks, it's Dave, and we know him."

This was utterly irrelevant logic, but apparently swayed IETF folk 
enough for permission to be granted.  So I got to attend.  By the 
meeting after that, the floodgates were fully opened, with other vendors 
attending.

In spite of compelling reasons to motivate one, I remain steadfastly 
unapologetic...


d/

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net