The only thing that I disagree with in the draft is the term "interoperable
standard". Looking at each change in a bit more detail:
- Two levels of standards rather than three:
I strongly support this. It is pretty clear that in most cases people don't
bother with the effort to move past Proposed Standard. The different between
"proposed" and "draft" seems too small to be worth the trouble. If there was
only one step required after "proposed", then people *might* bother to do it.
Moving to two steps instead of three is therefore a step in the right direction
(and IMHO a smaller step that is clearly in the right direction is usually
preferred to a larger step that might or might not be in the right direction).
- Calling the second (more mature) step "Interoperable Standard":
I don't like this, for the simple reason that it makes it sound as if "proposed
standard" might not be interoperable. In practice there are lots of proposed
standard documents that are widely deployed in multi-vendor networks, and
interoperate just fine (in many cases multi-vendor deployment begins well
before the document is submitted for publication as a proposed standard). I
prefer the term "internet standard" that some others have proposed, or "full
standard" would be fine also.
- Removing the requirement for a six month wait between "proposed standard"
and the next step:
I don't have an opinion on this.
- Removing the required review of proposed standards every two years: Support.
Given that we have never done this, it seems like a very good idea to write the
rules to match reality.
- Allowing Downward References (from "internet standard" to "proposed
standard):
Support. I can recall lots of cases where downward references resulted in
slowing down document publication, required second (or third) IETF last calls,
and caused more work for Area Directors (and/or WG chairs and authors). I can't
think of any cases where restricting downrefs actually helped, nor caused
anyone to respond to the extra IETF last call on the issue.
- Abolishing STD numbers:
Support.
- Transition to new scheme: All existing "draft" and "full" standards get
moved to the new more mature standards level.
Support.
Russ, thanks for putting this together.
Ross
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