In 2008 I was one of two software architects at Linden Lab (makers of Second Life.) We were re-factoring our "organic" UDP based virtual world protocol and fig

In 2008 I was one of two software architects at Linden Lab (makers of Second Life.) We were re-factoring our "organic" UDP based virtual world protocol and figured it was in everyone's best interest to publish an informational RFC about what we were doing. It made good political sense cause it allowed us to tell the "we're trying to build an open virtual world" story we thought would take us to the next level. That is, we were trying to be more "open" than "closed" and we wanted to tell that story. We thought it would be a simple process to publish one or two 100 page informational RFCs, get a bit of feedback and be done with it in a few months. Two years later we had a working group and several mature internet drafts. I won't go into the drama about why the IDs never turned into RFCs, but my advice... Never let anyone talk you into chartering a working group when all you want to do is publish an informational RFC. Also, when dealing with large multi-national companies with more lawyers and sales-people than engineers, make sure you get everything (notarized documents indicating they disclaim IP interests in the area of the internet draft) in writing first. Do not depend on them saying "hey, at the end of the process we're going to have to disclaim IP in this field anyway, so why would we lie to you?" They will wait until the last possible moment and then fail to disclaim their IP, scuttling the RFC process. I guess it's just in their nature.