On 1/28/2014 12:14 PM, Spencer Dawkins wrote:
Speaking only for myself, I don't expect Proposed Standards to be
perfect, and to work perfectly in every situation, but if a
specification doesn't describe any limits on applicability, I'm going to
be evaluating it as if it will be used on the open Internet (that's what
the "I" in "IETF" stands for).
...
So, if you don't intend for your draft to be used on the global
Internet, please say so!
Spencer,
What an excellent bit of constructive suggestion.
However you've cast it as being for the purpose of guiding IESG
evaluation, and I think that it really has much broader...
applicability. Anyone reading the document needs to know the intended
scope of use. For example, obviously an implementer ought to understand
the operational limitations meant for a specification.
I take your suggestion to reduce to a simple guideline:
The default applicability for an IETF specification is the 'open'
Internet. Any specification intended for more constrained use needs to
describe the constraints. One means of achieving this can be an
"Applicability" section in the specification, with a description of
intended use.
A potentially larger benefit of this consideration is that it might get
designers to think a bit more explicitly about the use of their work.
d/
--
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net