Re: [idn] Chinese Domain Name Consortium (CDNC) Declaration

[Dave Crocker <dhc@dcrocker.net>]

At 11:01 AM 2/4/2002 -0500, John C Klensin wrote:
>   The question is whether
>or not it is desirable to expand that risk, perhaps into
>populations that are less sensitive to it because they would,
>naturally, be more trusting of texts that appear to be written
>in their own languages (after not having seen those before).

The questions are really whether

         a) we are going to expand the scope of the working group beyond 
what is required to solve the actual requirement of the working group, and

         b) whether the IETF is now going to claim parental concerns for 
people's behaviors, protecting them from their deficiencies -- while 
remembering that we are exceeding poor at that task.

>And the answer to that question, I believe, must involve
>weighing the tradeoffs between the value of the expanded name
>space and the costs of the expanded risk.

Claims about the costs are based on behavioral assumptions that have no 
empirical basis.  Existence proofs, yes.  Proof of widespread danger, no.


>And I would hope that relevant documents coming out of the WG
>would explicitly alert people to these risks.

Adding language about implications of errors is typically a Good Thing, as 
long as a) the language is readily produced, and b) there is not so much of 
it that it gets in the way of the technical specification.

d/


----------
Dave Crocker  <mailto:dcrocker@brandenburg.com>
Brandenburg InternetWorking  <http://www.brandenburg.com>
tel +1.408.246.8253;  fax +1.408.273.6464