The IETF General Area
The General Area consists of a few IETF WGs and other activities
focused on supporting, updating and maintaining the IETF's standards
development process. It also looks after any other issues that
don't fit elsewhere. Sometimes, drafts will
spend a short time assigned to the General Area, until the IESG
decides which technical Area they belong to.
The General Area also hosts several ongoing teams, which are
listed right at the bottom of the
IESG page.
Additionally, the General Area Review Team provides generalist reviews for the General Area director, giving an additional set of eyes checking documents as they are being considered for publication.
Relevant links
Recent drafts of interest to the General Area
The presence of a draft in this list does not imply any endorsement by anybody, unless
a comment is added. The order is meaningless. Drafts that belong to an established WG or
team aren't listed here; neither are drafts related to matters under
IAB responsibility.
Also see current
draft IONs.
Recent IONs and RFCs of interest to the General Area
(Informational unless otherwise noted.)
Tasks of the General Area Director
- The General AD has the tasks of any AD for his or her own area -
remain attentive to emerging ideas, foster BOFs and WGs as
appropriate, manage those WGs, shepherd their drafts and any
relevant independent submissions. Although the General Area is
in theory for any work not covered elsewhere, it is in practice
limited to non-technical topics, i.e. IETF process topics. This
does create a curious meta-problem, which is the constant concern
about conflict of interest for an Area Director shepherding and
advocating work that affects (positively or negatively) his or
her own job.
- By convention, the General AD oversees several ad hoc teams chartered by the IESG.
- The General AD also has the tasks of any AD - reviewing all
drafts, WG charters, and any other matters under consideration by
the IESG. In a busy fortnight, this can represent 20 or 30
documents to review. Recent General ADs have successfully
delegated much of the review load to a General Area Review Team,
without which most drafts would remain unread in the General
Area.
Last update 2007-03-15 by Brian Carpenter