RE: [xri] Report on PlaNetwork poll on * and !

["Wachob, Gabe" <gwachob@visa.com>]

As for Esther Dyson's vote, I was sitting right next to her and attempted to vote twice (one with each hand) for the !. However, careful poll watchers (ie Drummond) caught my attempted fraud before it was successful...

All kidding aside, I'm now convinced personally that there is an overwhelming preference for * among those who are not familiar with UUCP addresses, and an overwhelming preference for ! among those who are. Since most people draw blanks stares when you mention UUCP, I think its safe to take as a fact that * is going to be the most *popular* choice among users. 

That is not, btw, a determinative factor in deciding which character to use, though it obviously is a very important one. 

	-Gabe

 
__________________________________________________ 
gwachob@visa.com
Chief Systems Architect
Technology Strategies and Standards
Visa International 
Phone: +1.650.432.3696   Fax: +1.650.554.6817


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Drummond Reed [mailto:drummond.reed@cordance.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 5:57 PM
> To: xri@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: [xri] Report on PlaNetwork poll on * and !
> 
> 
> Per Gabe's process proposal below, this message provides more 
> feedback about
> the about candidates for the new delegation character.
> 
> First, to reinterate Gabe's point about why we're focusing on 
> "*" and "!",
> the reason is that under the reserved chars available under 
> RFC2396bisv6,
> our only other choices (that aren't already used in XRI 1.0) 
> are "&", "'",
> ",", and ";". (Note that "!" is already used in XRI 1.0 as the GCS
> annotation character, but it would be switched with another 
> character if we
> made it the delegation char. "*" is also used as a GCS char 
> in XRI 1.0 but
> in a manner that could be consistent with it becoming the new 
> delegation
> char.)
> 
> "'", ",", and ";" are all undesirable primarily because they are not
> visually distinctive enough (they are too easily confused with dots or
> colons). "&" is undesirable because it is hard to write and 
> say. That leaves
> us with "*" or reclassifying "!".
> 
> As discussed on the list last week, we took a poll at the 
> session on e-names
> held last Saturady at the PlaNetwork Conference June 5/6 in 
> San Fransisco
> (www.planetwork.net). The XRI TC members attending this 
> session included
> myself, Gabe Wachob, Fen Labalme, Owen Davis, Victor Grey, 
> Marc Le Maitre,
> and Peter Davis. The session was very well attended (roughly 
> 55 people,
> including Esther Dyson), and the audience very interested in 
> e-names and
> their future. (One audience member said, "This is like defining the
> telephone number of the future!")
> 
> As early in the session as was feasible, after we had covered 
> the basics of
> e-names, we displayed identical examples of e-name syntax 
> using * and ! as
> the delegation characters and took two polls. In the first 
> poll, we asked
> only those who were new to e-names and XRIs (and thus 
> "unwashed" and better
> representing average user) to vote. The outcome was:
> 
> 26 favored *
> 13 favored !
> 
> In the second poll, where everyone voted, the totals were:
> 
> 36 favored *
> 16 favored !
> 
> (In case you're interested, Esther Dyson voted for *.)
> 
> Lastly, in answer to a question about what other characters 
> were considered,
> we explained the options, and then asked how many would 
> prefer & to either *
> or !. 8 people raised their hands.
> 
> =Drummond 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave McAlpin [mailto:Dave.McAlpin@epok.net] 
> Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 12:05 PM
> To: Wachob, Gabe; xri@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: RE: [xri] The process for moving forward
> 
> I think this is a fine approach. FYI, I've started drafting a 
> new rev to
> incorporate simple changes, like alignment with current IRI draft and
> incorporation of BNF from the current 2396bis draft, so work on step 5
> has already begun.
> 
> Dave
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Wachob, Gabe [mailto:gwachob@visa.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 11:05 AM
> > To: xri@lists.oasis-open.org
> > Subject: [xri] The process for moving forward
> > 
> > TC Members-
> > 	I'd like to get moving on the XRI spec changes, and I'd like to
> > propose the following process.
> > 
> > 1) The TC conducts a survey of how people feel on the change to .
> > Given the fact that the summary has been posted to the 
> list, its time
> to
> > narrow down our change proposals. Are we going to discuss any
> characters
> > besides * and !? Are we going to change to using *: and *. 
> or just to
> *
> > and
> > : (ie make the new character always used in combination)?
> > 
> > 2) Hold a vote on the proposals from #1
> > 
> > 3) Solicit any other changes to the XRI spec that people feel are
> > crtitical
> > (maybe in parallel to 1 and 2, but I'm a little concerned about
> > distracting
> > the TC from the */! issue)
> > 
> > ... some delay for discussion ...
> > 
> > 4) Vote on any proposals coming out of #3
> > 
> > 5) Either in parallel with 3 & 4, or after 5, start drafting the
> changes
> > to
> > the core spec as needed.
> > 
> > ... some delay for review ...
> > 
> > 6) Vote on 1.1 committee draft
> > 
> > 	I'm hoping this process frontloads the big change proposals so
> that
> > implementers will have increasing confidence that their code will
> require
> > fewer changes as time goes on (if any).
> > 
> > 	Thoughts?
> > 
> > 	-Gabe
> > 
> > __________________________________________________
> > gwachob@visa.com
> > Chief Systems Architect
> > Technology Strategies and Standards
> > Visa International
> > Phone: +1.650.432.3696   Fax: +1.650.554.6817
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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