richardb@trwind.UUCP (Richard Brehove) (04/14/90)
The following is my personal opinion, your mileage may vary, but I feel the need to say it: I attended the IEEE 802 plenary meeting in Irvine, California the week of March 12, 1990. Previously, I had been to one interm meeting of the 10BASE-T task force. My boss thought he was sending me to the battle front. Stories and rumors abounded that the people developing the standards were there only to make sure their companies profited from the outcome, or rather to make sure the outcome matched what they might already be producing. That's not what I saw. I witnessed a definite cooperation among all the participants. The feeling was that they wanted the best spec (Of course! Most of them were engineers.) technically, not necessarily politically. Most of the "NO" votes were seriously considered and not rejected out of hand. I remember in particular at the task force meeting we tried to get a unanimious vote on any motion if at all possible. That was harder with all of 802.3 in one room (about 200 of us) but the attitude was the same. Being involved is voluntary, but it still isn't all fun and games. Just ask anyone who was at that plenary who stayed up until the wee hours on a word processor getting specifications ready for the next day's voting (not me). It's a lot of work!! And it's voluntary!!. Remember, IEEE pays for none of this stuff. Not copies, meeting rooms, nothing. At least that's what I was told. I'm new to all of this, and I know I got there after all the bloody wars were over (the rumors were true in many cases), and I know I've just been to two meetings, but I just want to thank those who spend time, energy and money to give us network users and implementers good tools to work with. There was a definite team spirit in Irvine that week, and I was glad to be a part of it. And now... Back to your regulary scheduled newsgroup... -- Richard S. Brehove TRW Information Networks Division 23800 Hawthorne Blvd, Torrance CA 90505 ARPA: richardb@trwind.ind.TRW.COM USENET: ..trwrb!trwind!richardb