USENIX Standards Updates

[John S. Quarterman]

From: John S. Quarterman <jsq at usenix.org>

>I must confess that I've assumed all along that the purpose of the
>Updates was to summarize the various minutes so Usenix members and
>readers of this group wouldn't have to subscribe to them directly, as
>well as including any other relevant standards-related information.
...
>Also, I disagree that reporting on controversial subjects and
> opinions either implies or requires editorialization.

Minutes of IEEE 1003 meetings tend to be quite long, and there
are many of them.  Reducing them to a quickly legible size would
involve massive selection.  That selection itself would involve
opinions of an editor.  Such opinions would be implicit, but they
would be there, even in this apparently most neutral approach.

Because such opinions would be implicit, there would be danger
of their being taken as fact by people who did not read the full
minutes.

Simple summaries of minutes would have another disadvantage:
the minutes tend to be very laconic and often do not record
larger issues such as all the arguments on both sides of a
discussion (some of which may have appeared in previous minutes,
in the rationale, or may simply not have been recorded), or
the context of a discussion or decision in a larger controversy,
or some of the implications of a decision for other standards or
external groups.  This kind of information is not widely available,
and it is one of the main things that is wanted in these reports.
The USENIX board has wanted to have this kind of information available
since at least 1984, and a mechanism has only recently been found.

>Yes, opinions are important; but not just Shane's.  What I want to
>read about is the opinions of the movers and shakers in
>standardization and the prevailing opinions of the user community.

Other such opinions have been explicitly solicited in previous articles.
Such opininions can be either submitted directly to the moderator of
comp.std.unix or the editor of ;login: for posting, or they can given
to Shane for inclusion in the reports he writes.  Volunteers on the
watchdog committee are also explicitly asked to provide opinions of
their own.

>I don't think we can expect Shane's opinions to be an accurate
>representation of such a large and diverse group.

I know of no one's opinions that can be so regarded.

>These Updates are not just stating common or representative opinions,
>they are taking sides and promoting the opinion of one individual. 

One person's common or representative opinion is another person's
controversial issue.  However, the reports are *intended* to take sides.
People who take other sides are, once again, encouraged to speak up
with their own discussions of the issues.

>Let comp.std.unix/std-unix be the forum for personal opinion and the
>Standards Updates be an objective report of the developments and issues.

Thank you for your input.

Volume-Number: Volume 15, Number 58