Folks,
I have been ruminating on the different kinds of confusion that some/many of 
us keep having with discussion about SSP proposals.  I keep trying to figure 
out what details should be included in a proposal, to make it possible for 
everyone to understand it adequately and evaluate it on the same terms.
So I propose we formulate a template for proposals.  A draft is below, but I 
encourage folks to suggest changes:
PROBLEM/BENEFIT
1.  In non-technical terms, what is the information that will be obtained by a 
message recipient, about a domain holder's practice?
    This is intended to describe the high-level information, not the 
low-level DNS query.
2.  Why should we believe that recipients will feel a strong need to obtain 
this information?
SYSTEM IMPACT
3.  Where does the recipient obtain the query domain name from?
4.  At what point in a recipient's message processing will the query be made?
    The Overview draft contains a diagram that describes DKIM processing, and 
provides a basis for citing what step the query will be made at (or before, or 
after.)  If the diagram is insufficient, please let me know what changes to it 
might help.
                                         |
                                         | - RFC2822 Message
                                         V
                     +---------------------------------------------+
 +-----------+       |         ORIGINATING OR RELAYING ADMD        |
 |           |       |         ============================        |
 |  Signer   |       |                                             |
 | Practices +......>|  SIGN MESSAGE                               |
 |           |       |   ...> ADD A SIGNATURE HEADER FIELD         |
 +-----+-----+ .....>|   .     GET (Domain, Selector, Priv-Key)    |
       .       .     |   ...   COMPUTE SIGNATURE                   |
       .       V     +----------------+----------------------------+
       .   +-------+                     | - Message 
       .   |       |                     |      1*(Domain, Selector,
       .   |  Key  |                     |         Sig)
       .   | Store |                 [Internet]
       .   |       |                     |  
       .   +---+---+                     V
       .       .     +---------------------------------------------+
       .       .     |          RELAYING OR DELIVERING ADMD        |
       .       .     |          ===========================        |
       .       .     |                                             |
       .       .     |  VERIFY MESSAGE (Verifier Practices)        |
       .       .     |   ...> VERIFY A SIGNATURE HEADER FIELD      |
       .       .     |   .     GET A SIGNATURE                     |
       .       .....>|   .     LOOKUP PUB-KEY (Domain, Selector)   |
       .             |   .     VERIFY SIGNATURE VALUE              |
       .             |   ...   EVALUATE SIGNATURE CONSTRAINTS      |
       .             +-------------------+-------------------------+
       .                                 |  - Verified Domain(s) 
       .                                 V  - [Report]
       .             +---------------------------------------------+
       .             |                                             |
       .             |   MESSAGE DISPOSITION                       |
       .............>|       SIGNER PRACTICES                      |
       .............>|       REPUTATION                            |
       .             |                                             |
 +-----+------+      +---------------------------------------------+
 |            |
 | Reputation |
 |            |
 +------------+
5. Is the query made for:
   a) All signed messages
   b) All unsigned messages
   c) Other (please describe the conditions)
d/
--
  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net
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