RE: Optical Connectors
I love free food, and the optical component manufacturers always put on
a nice spread.
What's so bad about connector wars, anyway? Connector wars have gotten
a bad rap because they have been bungled so badly by inept standards
committees. Consider what we did in 802.3z:
0) We adopted the SC and the DB-9 as the baseline connectors for 802.3z
in November, 1996 in Vancouver.
1) We set the time and place for the war (March, 1997 in Irvine), with
plenty of advance notice. This coincided with an 802 plenary week.
2) We told the manufacturers that we would not allow them to publicly
announce any "hospitality suites" or parties at the 802 meeting.
3) The manufacturers took the hint, and set up lavish parties with
free food and drink and wonderfully informative exhibits. They were
very careful to NOT announce the parties at the meeting. One party
was held on monday, and another on tuesday. With the 802 social on
wednesday, we had free food for most of the week.
4) Wednesday morning and afternoon, we were provided with carefully
thought out, well organized presentations on 4 different connector
proposals.
5) After a little startup confusion, and one hour of discussion, we added
the HSSDC connector to clause 39, and then we voted to not entertain
anymore optical connector discussions.
6) Due to the interest in the subject an additional 130 people
registered for the meeting. We set a record for attendance that stood
for almost 2 years. At $300/head, this amounted to about an extra $40K
in our treasury. Based on the body counts we had in La Jolla, I would
guess that a connector war could put our attendance in Tampa at 1000,
maybe more.
So, I say, bring on the connector wars. There is such a thing as a
free dinner! It is a good thing that connector wars are terrible, else
we would grow fond of them.
Howard