[OSGeo-Discuss] scale of FOSS projects

[Miles Fidelman]

Tim Bowden wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-05-08 at 21:28 -0400, Miles Fidelman wrote:
>   
>> Michael P. Gerlek wrote:
>>     
>>> Or, to quote the IETF, "rough consensus and running code".
>>>   
>>>       
>> Except that the reference is to the informal criteria for when one might 
>> even beginning to firm up a standard.  In the IETF community - unlike 
>> pretty much every other standards body on the planet - there's a pretty 
>> strong insistence that there are multiple implementations of something, 
>> that  an talk to each other, before even thinking about pinning down 
>> anything that looks like a standard.
>>     
>
> IMHO standards are just a fancy way of documenting the solution.  Until
> you've build the solution, you don't understand the problem properly
> [1].  If you try and write your standard while your understanding of the
> solution space is underdeveloped, you'll end up with a pile of shite.
>   
We're in violent agreement here.  Unfortunately, outside the IETF world, 
that's how standards are done - to just the effect you describe. 

But that's really besides the point - which is that that the IETF quote 
does not refer to the subject at hand (the cost/scale of software 
development, the degree to which institutional support is called for, 
and when support is needed) but to a philosophy of when to standardize 
communications protocols.

Miles



-- 
Miles R. Fidelman, Director of Government Programs
Traverse Technologies 
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