Net standards have long been set by a collegial group of volunteer experts known as the Internet Engineering Task Force. But more companies with a stake in the Net's development are sending delegates to IETF committee meetings. That bogs things down because anyone who attends has a vote, no questions asked. Meanwhile, standard-setting for the World Wide Web is beset by fighting between Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Netscape Communications. The battling creates headaches for people who need to place bets on which technologies will take hold.
Trouble is, no one really runs the Internet.
So the Internet is at a turning point. Moskowitz recalls that in the early 1950s, the American public turned against the space program after a Redstone rocket blew up on the launchpad on live television. The community has a powerful incentive to do just that. After all, worrisome as they may be, the Internet's problems stem not from decline, but growth. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.