[ih] IETF relevance (was Memories of Flag Day?)

[Dave Crocker]

On 8/30/2023 4:46 PM, John Day via Internet-history wrote:
>   Without looking at the membership list, which I have, the only ‘vendors’ were phone companies that were vertically integrated

Until the late 1980s, vendors who participated were direct suppliers or 
contractors for gov't funded R&D participants. Stray, independent 
vendors were not allowed.

I wound up being the participant who broke down down that barrier.  
Although active from 1972-1982, I'd been away for several years.  Then I 
went to work for Ungermann-Bass and wound up managing its TCP/IP 
development effort, since this was clearly emerging as a meaningful 
commercial market.  We'd adapted some existing UB products (built 
original with a UB-specific variation of XNS) to use TCP/IP.

I made the entirely uncreative observation that if we were going into 
this market and the specs were changing rapidly, gosh, we should be in 
the meetings.

My request to participate caused quite a lot of controversy in the 
community.  I think it was Bob Braden who got the group to agree, by 
using what an entirely well-intentioned but, in my few, entirely 
inappropriate point:  Everyone knew me already.  So cronyism got me in, 
rather than a formal change in policy.

However it established the precedent and for the IETF meeting after 
that, everything was open to the many new vendors wanting to attend.

d/

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net
mast:@dcrocker at mastodon.social