Hi Dave,
In response to your request for more interaction w/the IAB, here's a peeve I've been developing lately and perhaps this outlet might be appropriate for it. There are some resources, like IP addresses and AS numbers, the proper operation of which hinges on their uniqueness. Generally, people seem to understand that it's only their uniqueness within a domain that is required; however, there is no telling when domains which may not be connected may become so in the future. RFC1918 has definitely caused problems for me personally many times and I feel certain the experience is far from rare. I'm not saying that reserved numbers for private uses aren't needed. There are still labs and other example configurations where they might be of use. RFC1918 might seem to alleviate some operational problems but it certainly creates many others. The registries (including IANA as their root) should provide just that, a place to register the use of number resources to avoid collisions. I'm thinking that "private" number spaces should probably be used advisedly if not deprecated outright. I could add more detail if desired for the sake of clarity. I'd like to see some acknowledgement that there are legitimate uses of number resources that don't include "the public Internet". IAB should perhaps claim to the Architecture of "TCP/IP protocol technology" or however it would be best construed to convey that these technologies are used outside "the [public] Internet" and that their integrity and viability needs to be protected broadly. Does this concern make sense? Does this course of action make sense? Is there a(nother) better venue than the IAB? What do people think? Tony ps. My goal is not to inflame, merely to discuss and educate.
