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Re: [ietf-dkim] Re: I-D ACTION:draft-ietf-dkim-overview-04.txt

2007-03-12 16:28:31



I would not wait with an Overview document until SSP is ready for
prime time. I would encourage deployment of DKIM-base now so that
we can gain useful experience.
I sure hope that -overview is not looked upon as a necessary ingredient
for developing/deploying -base. Because I don't think it is.


In order to decide to deploy -base, one must understand not only its details, but the context in which it is supposed to operate.

The -base document does not provide a general systems-framework for understanding the role of -base, because that was not a goal for -base. -overview provides that framework.

More generally, the deployment of security-related protocols has a long history of being problematic. Understanding why and how DKIM is a credible mechanism, in the face of that problematic history, also is not something -base was intended to provide, since it is a specification rather than a tutorial. On the other hand, -base does help with that understanding.

And so on...

Deployment is not a technical issue, so much as a management decision issue.

-Base is not intended to help decision makers or designers of the framework into which DKIM will fit. The -Overview document is intended to help with this.

For anyone who is serious about wanting to get DKIM used, I would think that they would want it used sooner, rather than later. Anything that will facilitate the 'sooner' ought to be a straightforward choice.

In particular, I do not understand the idea of delaying something that can be of significant use for early-stage -base adoption, and waiting for some unknown moment in the problematic future, when SSP might eventually converge and get approved.

d/
--

  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net
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