The "purpose of the IETF" thing

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand <harald@alvestrand.no>]

I think the "high quality, relevant standards for the Internet" is a fine 
capsule description of *one* thing we do. But we do other things 
(operational discussions, experimentation, community building) that should 
not be regarded as secondary.

That's the other reason (apart from not figuring out how to socialize the 
definition) that I haven't pushed as hard as I could on making this concept 
"public" since London.

Another point on mission statement I heard from someone: The chief benefit 
of the mission statement exercise is often not to the people reading the 
mission statement - it's on the people who help develop it.... because they 
are forced to think about it......

How do we maximize that benefit?

                   Harald