Re: Is it time for an disruption analysis working group for the Internet?

["Howard C. Berkowitz" <hcb () clark net>]

At 2:04 AM -0700 11/12/98, Pete Kruckenberg wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Nov 1998, Sean Donelan wrote:
>
> > Have we reached a critical mass of multi-provider disruptions to make
> > it possible to do something yet?
> >
> > Most networked industries have some group which collects and analyzes
> > information about disruptions.  What's interesting is how often similar
> > disruptions had precursor events across multiple different service
> > providers. For example, there have been several cases in the last few
> [...]
>
> How is this handled in other networked industries? I'm sure that the same
> issues of proprietary information and public humliation exist there; how
> do they deal with it?
>
> Pete.

Not precisely the networking industry, but the airline industry has been
revising recently its procedures for crash notification, not just on its
own but with governmental pressure. I suspect we could get information from
the Air Transport Association or possibly the US National Transportation
Safety Board.

A point from aviation -- incidents such as near-misses can be reported
without fear of liabiity, because the consensus is that it's more important
to recognize potential safety problems than it is to set up opportunities
for acting against individuals or setting up opportunities for lawsuits.

In other industries, the Electric Power Research Institute would be a good
starting point, since they have responsiblity for data network architecture
in the electrical power industry.  Anyone from EPRI reading NANOG?

Medicine, unfortunately, isn't the best area in general for seeing examples
of how to do things in the open.  There are examples in the specialty of
public health. There is a well-respected email newsletter called Pro-Med to
which I subscribe. Pro-Med came out of the Federation of American
Scientists, has a rather star-studded advisory board of public health
experts, and is quite respected.   I suspect their staff and board would be
open to serving as a model, if the model fits.


Howard