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FYI: draft-wasserman-rfc2418-update-00.txt



FYI --

I posted an updated version of my RFC 2418 update draft
last night (attached).

Comments are welcome.

Margaret


Network Working Group                                       M. Wasserman
Internet-Draft                                                     Nokia
Expires: April 18, 2004                                 October 19, 2003


  Updates to RFC 2418 to Increase the Authority and Responsibility of
                          Working Group Chairs
                 draft-wasserman-rfc2418-update-00.txt

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other
   groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://
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   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 18, 2004.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document contains several updates to RFC 2418 designed to give
   more responsibility and authority to IETF Working Group Chairs.  In
   particular, Working Group Chairs are given the responsibility of
   ensuring the technical quality, completeness and suitability of work
   produced by their Working Groups, and the authority to refuse to
   advance any work that does not meet the acceptance criteria for its
   proposed publication level.  The importance of meeting minutes is
   emphasized, and Working Group chairs are also given more
   responsibility and authority for the management of working group
   mailing list discussions.

   Status of this Document



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   This document is not intended to be published as an RFC in its
   current form.  If the community agrees to make these changes, then an
   updated version of RFC 2418 that reflects these changes should be
   produced.















































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1. Introduction

   This document suggests several specific changes to the "IETF Working
   Group Guidelines and Procedures" described in RFC 2418 [2].

   These changes give WG chairs the responsibility to ensure the
   technical quality, completeness and relevance of work that is
   produced by their Working Groups, as well as the authority to refuse
   to advance any work that does not meet the acceptance criteria for
   the intended publication level, as described in sections 4.1 and 4.2
   of RFC 2026 [1].

   Changes are also described that will emphasize the importance of WG
   minutes and clarify what those minutes should contain.

   This document also gives WG chairs the authority to deal directly
   with disruptive behaviour on WG mailing lists.  In particular, chairs
   are authorized to revoke mailing list posting priveleges, after
   consultation with the responsible AD, rather than requesting IESG
   action.

   These changes are presented in the OLD/NEW format used to send
   document changes to the RFC editor.  Text in the OLD section will be
   replaced by text in the corresponding NEW section.  It is not
   expected that this document will be published as an RFC in its
   current form, or that this input will be forwarded to the RFC editor
   in this form.  Once we have reached consensus on a set of changes to
   RFC 2418, a complete RFC 2418 update I-D should be submitted that
   reflects those changes, and published in accordance with the usual
   IETF document processes.





















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2. Changes to Section 6.1, WG Chair

   This is one of several changes related to giving WG chairs more
   authority to ensure document quality.  In particular, the WG Chair is
   responsible for ensuring that WG documents receive adequate expert
   review during document development, that they meet the acceptance
   criteria for their intended publication level, and that the meet all
   other criteria for document quality provided by the RFC editor or the
   IESG.

   OLD

   Document development

   Working groups produce documents and documents need authors. The
   Chair must make sure that authors of WG documents incorporate changes
   as agreed to by the WG (see section 6.3).

   NEW

   Document development

   Working groups produce documents and documents need editors. The
   Chair must make sure that editors of WG documents incorporate changes
   as agreed to by the WG (see section 6.3).  Document editors are
   selected by the WG Chair, and may be replaced by the WG Chair if they
   are, in the opinion of the Chair, inadequately responsive to the
   rough consensus of the WG.

   Document quality

   The WG Chair is responsible for ensuring that a WG document is of
   sufficient quality before submitting that document for IESG review.
   In particular, the WG Chair must ensure that WG documents are
   adequately reviewed by reviewers with expertise in all applicable
   areas, that they meet the document publication criteria described in
   sections 4.1 and 4.2 of RFC 2026 [1], and that they meet any
   publication requirements provided by the RFC Editor or the IESG.













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3. Changes to Section 7.4, Working Group Last-Call

   This is another change related to the increased authority of WG
   chairs regarding document quality.  In particular, the WG Chair
   should not send a document to the IESG until there is WG consensus to
   do so AND the WG Chair believes that the document meets the quality
   criteria defined above.

   OLD

   When a WG decides that a document is ready for publication it may be
   submitted to the IESG for consideration.

   NEW

   When a WG decides that a document is ready for publication, and the
   WG Chair believes that the document meets the document quality
   criteria described in section 6.1, the WG chair may submit the
   document to the IESG for consideration.
































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4. Changes to Section 7.5, Submission of documents

   This is another change related to giving WG chairs more authority to
   ensure document quality.  In particular, the chair is responsible for
   ensuring that a document meets the quality criteria described above
   before advancing the document.

   OLD

   Once that a WG has determined at least rough consensus exists within
   the WG for the advancement of a document the following must be done:

   NEW

   When a WG Chair has determined that rough consensus exists within the
   WG for the advancement of a document and the Chair believes that the
   document meets the criteria for document quality defined in section
   6.1, the following must be done:

































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5. Changes to Section 6.3, Document Editor

   This change is indirectly related to increasing the authority of WG
   Chairs in the area of document quality.  In situations where the WG
   Chair will have more authority over when a document is, or is not,
   progressed, it is even more important that a single person does not
   serve in both the WG Chair and Document Editor roles for a single
   document.

   OLD

   As a general practice, the Working Group Chair and Document Editor
   positions are filled by different individuals to help ensure that the
   resulting documents accurately reflect the consensus of the working
   group and that all processes are followed.

   NEW

   It is important that the Working Group Chair and Document Editor
   positions are filled by different individuals to help ensure that the
   resulting documents accurately reflect the consensus of the working
   group and that all processes are followed.  In particular, WG Chairs
   should not serve in a quality assurance role for their own work.
   Also, having the WG Chair role and the Document Editor role be filled
   by the same person removes one level of appeal when WG members do not
   agree with the decision of the Document Editor.

   In many cases, a WG may have more than one WG Chair, and if one WG
   Chair serves as the Document Editor for a WG document, the other WG
   Chair(s) may serve as the WG Chair(s) for that document.  In those
   cases, the role of each WG Chair should be made clear to the entire
   WG.  In rare cases, perhaps due to a role change, a lone WG Chair may
   serve as a Document Editor for a WG document, but that situation
   should be avoided when possible, and corrected as quickly as
   practical.
















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6. Changes to Section 3, Working Group Operation

   Changes will be made to this section to emphasize the importance of
   WG meeting minutes, to make it clear that minutes should be reviewed
   by the WG before publication, and to clarify the contents and purpose
   of WG meeting minutes.

   OLD

   All working group sessions (including those held outside of the IETF
   meetings) shall be reported by making minutes available.  These
   minutes should include the agenda for the session, an account of the
   discussion including any decisions made, and a list of attendees. The
   Working Group Chair is responsible for insuring that session minutes
   are written and distributed, though the actual task may be performed
   by someone designated by the Working Group Chair. The minutes shall
   be submitted in printable ASCII text for publication in the IETF
   Proceedings, and for posting in the IETF Directories and are to be
   sent to: minutes@ietf.org

   3.2. Session venue

   NEW

   3.2. Documentation of activity

   All working group sessions (including those held outside of the IETF
   meetings) shall be reported by making minutes available. Clear,
   archived documentation of WG activity, particularly of face-to-face
   WG meetings, is an important contribution to the Working Group's
   efforts.

   Working Group meeting minutes must contain the agenda of the session,
   and a summary of the discussions.  The minutes must clearly document
   any rough consensus that is reached during the meeting (which will
   also be confirmed on the WG mailing list), and the minutes must also
   record any action items assigned to individuals, with names and
   expected completion dates accurately recorded.  Meeting minutes may
   also include a detailed record of the discussion or any other
   material that is relevant to understanding what was presented or
   discussed at the meeting.

   WG minutes are useful in many situations -- WG participants who are
   unable to attend the WG meeting can use meeting minutes to determine
   what was discussed, future chairs (of the same WG) may use meeting
   minutes to determine what has been discussed and decided in the past,
   meeting minutes may be important input in appeal proceedings, and the
   WG may refer to meeting minutes when they reconsider WG decisions.



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   Meeting minutes are a critical record of Working Group activity, and
   should be detailed enough to be useful for these purposes.

   Meeting minutes should be produced in a timely fashion, circulated
   and confirmed on the WG mailing list, and delivered to the IETF
   Proceedings Editor (at minutes@ietf.org) by the applicable deadline.
   The WG Chair is ultimately responsible for ensuring that accurate and
   complete meeting minutes are produced, but this work may be delegated
   to someone else, such as a WG Secretary.

   3.3. Session venue

   OLD

   3.3. Session management

   NEW

   3.4. Session management

   OLD

   3.4. Contention and appeals

   NEW

   3.5. Contention and appeals
























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7. Changes to Section 3.2, Session Venue

   The changes in this section are intended to give WG Chairs, with the
   agreement of their AD, the authority to revoke the posting priveleges
   of disrputive individuals.  This should allow us to take more timely
   action to prevent WG disruption.

   OLD

   As with face-to-face sessions occasionally one or more individuals
   may engage in behavior on a mailing list which disrupts the WG's
   progress.  In these cases the Chair should attempt to discourage the
   behavior by communication directly with the offending individual
   rather than on the open mailing list.  If the behavior persists then
   the Chair must involve the Area Director in the issue.  As a last
   resort and after explicit warnings, the Area Director, with the
   approval of the IESG, may request that the mailing list maintainer
   block the ability of the offending individual to post to the mailing
   list. (If the mailing list software permits this type of operation.)
   Even if this is done, the individual must not be prevented from
   receiving messages posted to the list.  Other methods of mailing list
   control may be considered but must be approved by the AD(s) and the
   IESG.

   NEW

   As with face-to-face sessions occasionally one or more individuals
   may engage in behavior on a mailing list which disrupts the WG's
   progress.  In these cases the Chair(s) should attempt to discourage
   the behavior by communicating directly with the offending individual
   rather than on the open mailing list.  If the behavior persists then
   the Chair(s) must send at least one public warning on the mailing
   list. As a last resort and after explicit warnings, the WG Chair(s),
   with the approval of the Area Director, may request that the mailing
   list maintainer block the ability of the offending individual to post
   to the mailing list. Even if this is done, the individual must not be
   prevented from receiving messages posted to the list.  Other methods
   of mailing list control may be considered but must be approved by the
   AD(s) and the IESG.












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8. Security Considerations

   This section is taken directly from RFC 2418, and would remain
   unchanged in the new document.

   Documents describing IETF processes, such as this one, do not have an
   impact on the security of the network infrastructure or of Internet
   applications.

   It should be noted that all IETF working groups are required to
   examine and understand the security implications of any technology
   they develop.  This analysis must be included in any resulting RFCs
   in a Security Considerations section.  Note that merely noting a
   significant security hole is no longer sufficient.  IETF developed
   technologies should not add insecurity to the environment in which
   they are run.



































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9. Acknowledgements

   Thanks to the following people who have provided feedback on this
   document:  Harald Alvestrand, Scott Bradner, Brian Carpenter, Leslie
   Daigle, John Loughney.

   This document was written using the xml2rfc tool described in RFC
   2629 [3].











































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Normative References

   [1]  Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP
        9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

   [2]  Bradner, S., "IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures", BCP
        25, RFC 2418, September 1998.












































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Informative References

   [3]  Rose, M., "Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML", RFC 2629, June
        1999.


Author's Address

   Margaret Wasserman
   Nokia
   5 Wayside Road
   Burlington, MA  01803
   US

   Phone: +1 781 993 4900
   EMail: margaret.wasserman@nokia.com
   URI:   http://www.nokia.com/


































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   Internet Society.











































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