On Fri, 10 March 2000, "Kelly J. Cooper" wrote:

THEN the next big thing comes along, people get scared, the consortia suddenly get well-attended, NEW groups spring up, the community starts complaining again and the cycle is renewed. That is, until people get bored again, or budgets change or the NEXT big thing that comes along has nothing to do with security.

This cycle is old. I know I'm bored with it.

A very good summary of past cycles. There is no lack of groups. But I certainly don't have time or funding to attend meetings of all these groups, or even the groups that will have me as a member. And I definitely don't think the solution is creating yet another group.

So now what?

How do you propose to cull the wheat from the chaff? Get all the right information about what ISPs are trying to do, and going into the lab to test, and researching into the right ears (of other ISPs)? How are you going to get the right people to speak and the wrong people to shut up for a few minutes?

Because if it was just as easy as kicking in a few bucks to yet another consortium, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I think a paid professional secretariat is mandatory. But costs a lot of money. It can't be a stand-alone consortium, but must be part of a larger industry group to handle the inevitable cycles of interest. It must be composed of a critical mass of industry. Groups with less than a thirty or so members tend to stagnate. -- What I do on my days off http://www.irishparade.org/ or spot me on the webcam broadcast at http://www.iwannasee.com/