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RFC3844 and IETF Core Values

2011-09-10 21:24:03
On Sep 9, 2011, at 9:33 PM, Thomas Narten wrote:

Advancing a spec is done for marketing, political, process and other
reasons. E.g., to give a spec more legitimacy. Or to more clear
replace an older one. Nothing wrong with that.

Eric Burger wrote:

So should we move to a one-step process?

I asked the great visionary sayer - google, the question:

            What is the IETF Purpose?

and got this top result link:

     http://www.alvestrand.no/ietf/iesg/purpose.php

Alvestrand's conclusion states it as a QA problem which I personally agree with:

   A problem in the first 2 bullets is that we have a quality control
   problem - if the WG proposals or the WG consensus documents are not
   high quality, speed will drop like a stone - and SHOULD. We need
   metrics to capture this, somehow.

The search also provided a link to RFC3844,"IETF Problem Resolution Process"

Reading RFC3844 now for the first time, seems to have a down a darn good job of laying out all the issues in 2002 and thats to be still true today, in 2011.

Says in its intro:

   1. Introduction

   ...
   This document begins with an outline of what are currently thought to
   be the purpose and core values of the IETF, and it offers a reminder
   of the good things about the IETF that we don't want to lose in the
   process of solving our problems.

and says pretty profoundly in section 2:

   2. IETF Purpose and Core Values

   As we consider how to address the problems with the IETF processes
   and organizational structure, it is important to keep in mind the
   things about the IETF that we don't want to change -- our sense of
   purpose, and the core values that give the IETF its unique identity.

And it list the items that were concluded in 2002 as non-core values that could be considered for change in section 2.1:

  - The division into WGs and Areas
  - The three-step standards process
  - The ASCII format for RFCs and I-Ds
  - The format of IETF meetings
  - The structure of WG mailing lists
  - The powers of the IESG and IAB

and says:

  These things were designed to help us achieve our goals in a way that
  is consistent with our core values.  If they are no longer effective,
  we can and should change them.

I disagree that any of these has shown not the be effective, in particular the one on topic with "The Three-step standards process" which can only be viewed as a way to bypass the results of these tools in keeping core-values.

In section 3, it highlights there ideas that is has put the IETF in a bind:

   - Economics,  Commercialization and Convergence.

I personally agree these are the realities, but don't think it should alter the essential IETF core values.

--
HLS


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