Re: [IAB] Out of the box proposal

[John C Klensin <klensin+iab at jck.com>]

--On Saturday, May 16, 2009 19:09 +0200 Henk Uijterwaal
<henk at ripe.net> wrote:

> If the RFC editor will find these errors, then I suggest to
> move their
> review to an earlier stage and/or instruct the IESG to focus
> on the content, not editorial issues.

I favor an earlier editorial pass, both because I think it would
lead to better-quality documents and because I'm very concerned
about the interaction between rising IESG workload and the
Nomcom's range of choices of "volunteer" nominees.  

As we reduce the skill level of the portion of the RFC Editor
function that actually edits documents (something I believe to
be almost inevitable under the new model and proposed RFP), it
is likely to become ever more important that the approval bodies
are reviewing something as close to final text as possible.  At
least during the start-up months of the new RFC Editor system,
leaving something to the RFC Editor post-approval and assuming
that they will catch things and correctly fix them will probably
be unwise for all concerned.

However, we should understand two things if we move in this
direction:

(1) It will certainly increase costs (see Marshall's note).  It
is common for significant technical edits to occur during and
after Last Call.  If the RFC Editor does a pre-Last Call edit,
significant changes to the text will (still) require a
post-approval comprehensive editing pass to be sure the document
still hangs together (as well as ensuring that editorial
problems have not been introduced along with the new text).

(2) If the IESG is operating on the model of "there will always
be bugs" and ADs don't feel that they are doing their jobs
unless they find some and insist that they be fixed, then there
will be no saving of either calendar time or IESG time.    I
think we need to be working much more on a model of "is this
adequate" rather than "can we find some bugs in it" if the IETF
is to survive and be effective, but, as far as I can tell, only
the IESG is able to make the decision to make that shift in
practice.

    john