If there has been no charter proposed for a MMMS working group, I
intend to propose one as follows. I would like to know how the
Area Directors feel about the following ideas, many of which are
informed by the comments of Patrik, Ned, and others in the Apps
Discussion archives -- http://wilma.cs.utk.edu/mail-archive/discuss.1999-12
Proposed MMMS working group purpose: The MMMS working group will
produce a series of Internet-Drafts, and attempt to produce RFCs,
describing the use of end-to-end Internet multimedia messaging and
related services on mobile devices. The specifications will concern
application-level services as well as general end-to-end Internet
service specifications and lower-level services such as non-wireless
serial PPP access from mobile devices. No new protocols will be
created; only existing open Internet standards and protocols free from
any intellectual property encumbrance will be incorporated into MMMS
specifications, along with specific implementation interoperability
guidelines.
Proposed special document status and process for MMMS specifications:
Recognizing that it may be impossible to achieve consensus on topics
in which large and diverse corporate concerns have vested interests
opposed to open standards, the MMMS working group will have a special
goal to produce Internet-Drafts which will identified as "Frozen MMMS
RFC-track Internet-Drafts." These documents might never become RFCs
because of an expected lack of consensus, but upon identification as
such by the Working Group, they will be announced and archived as
frozen documents. Developers may rely on such documents as static
and vendors and customers will be encouraged to refer to them in their
procurement process. The level of consensus required to designate
Frozen MMMS RFC-track Internet-Drafts will be a simple majority of
those working group participants who are not affiliated with
organizations having direct or indirect financial interests in
closed-protocol mobile services. Any member of the working group not
affiliated with organizations having direct or indirect financial
interests in closed-protocol mobile services may call a vote on the
designation of any Internet-Draft as a Frozen MMMS RFC-track
Internet-Draft, and if after one week's time there are more such MMMS
WG participants in favor than dissenting, the WG Chair, the author of
the draft, or the participant calling the vote will then take steps to
establish a permanent archive of the draft and publish an announcement
of its availability to the IETF community. Anyone affiliated with
organizations having direct or indirect financial interests in
closed-protocol mobile services may not call a vote or vote on such
special designation, but all participants will have normal consensus
rights in the traditional RFC process, and all Internet-Drafts must
follow the existing IESG intellectual property disclosure process.
Proposed milestones: The goals of the MMMS WG will include the
publication of specifications, as described above, on the following
topics: interoperable end-to-end Internet service access on mobile
devices, including descriptions of existing end-to-end wireless
Internet service arrangements; implementation guidelines for multimedia
messaging services on mobile devices using existing Internet messaging
standards; guidelines concerning performance implications of link
constraints, including TCP behaviors during extended periods of
wireless link downtime; and wired PPP access from mobile Internet
devices.
Jim Mathis: Would you be interested in chairing a MMMS working group
charted as described above? Would your organization's current apparent
commitment to closed-protocol mobile messaging solutions make you an
inappropriate chair for such a group? If you would not want to, or do
not feel you would be an appropriate chair, I would volunteer to serve
as an interim chair.
Cheers,
James
At the November meeting, about 90 people attended the Mobile
Multimedia Messaging Service BOF:
http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/99nov/46th-99nov-ietf-42.html
But the mailing list has been dead:
http://www.imc.org/ietf-mmms/mail-archive/threads.html
MMMS-related topics seem to be fairly prevalent on the general
IETF discussion list, with a lot of general agreement that the
status quo has some real problems.
Has anyone started on a working group charter?
There needs to be an organized effort to provide explicit and
well-documented alternatives to the closed-protocol,
pseudo-internet mobile access consortia, who are a real barrier
to easy and reasonable mobile multimedia messaging services.
I for one would certainly contribute a great deal of time and
effort to the success of such a working group.