Network Working Group J. Klensin Internet-Draft February 7, 2005 Expires: August 11, 2005 Standing Documents Describing IETF Processes and Operations draft-ietf-newtrk-sd-00.txt Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions of Section 3 of RFC 3667. By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she become aware will be disclosed, in accordance with RFC 3668. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on August 11, 2005. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). Abstract The "ISD" model for specifying the definition, status, and content of Internet Standards does not appear to be satisfactory for the documents that describe IETF procedures, structure, or relationships with other bodies. Those documents have traditionally be published as BCPs and described as "process" BCPs. This document proposes an special document series for those process documents, paralleling the ISDs. Klensin Expires August 11, 2005 [Page 1] Internet-Draft IETF Standing Documents February 2005 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. Proposal Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3. A New Document Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4. Content and Organization of an ISD Document . . . . . . . . . 4 5. Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 9.1 Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 9.2 Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . 6 Klensin Expires August 11, 2005 [Page 2] Internet-Draft IETF Standing Documents February 2005 1. Introduction [[ Note in draft: The on-list discussions of the ISD specification seem to have concluded that including the IETF procedural BCP documents in the ISD series would be a mistake for a number of different reasons. This document is posted as a placeholder in the event that the NEWTRK WG concludes that the general ISD idea would be appropriate for process documents, but that the ISD series is not the right repository. If the WG makes that decision, the present author would welcome a volunteer to take this document over and coordinate drawing the details together. ]] The "ISD" model for specifying the definition, status, and content of Internet Standards [repurposing-ISD] does not appear to be satisfactory for the documents that describe IETF procedures, structure, or relationships with other bodies. Those documents have traditionally be published as BCPs and described as "process" BCPs. This document proposes an special document series for those process documents, paralleling the ISDs. Other standards bodies seem to have similar series. They are called "Standing Documents" in INCITS and many other ANSI-accredited SDOs, "Directives" in ISO and ISO/IEC JTC1, and A-series Recommendations or WTSA Resolutions in ITU-T. 2. Proposal Overview This document proposes that a new document series be created, called IETF Standing Documents ("IETFSD"s) and that these be real documents, separate from the underlying RFCs. The documents would be managed under the direction of the IESG as part of the IETF procedural definition process, rather than being simply undifferentiated BCPs. [[ Note in Draft: A better name, one less likely to be confused with "ISD" is solicited. ]] 3. A New Document Series This set of documents could be initialized simply by creating template reference documents to the existing process BCP RFCs, complementing their BCP identities. While it would be desirable to remove the target documents from the BCP series entirely, existing references to them by BCP numbers would require a long transition period before doing so. Since these documents, following the ISD model, would involve a lighter-weight modification process than issuing a completely new RFC, they could accommodate minor changes to the procedures by inline Klensin Expires August 11, 2005 [Page 3] Internet-Draft IETF Standing Documents February 2005 notes. They could also act as a repository for IESG operational notes, such as "id-nits". 4. Content and Organization of an ISD Document [[ Placeholder -- details to be developed if the WG decides to go down this path]] 5. Transition The Internet-Draft [ISD-Examples-Process] appears to contain most of the information needed to create this series. An alternative to a series is to create a single master standing document that refers to the RFCs and policy statements that would otherwise make up the document collection. That I-D would essentially be the first draft of that document. 6. IANA Considerations This document does not anticipate any specific tasks for the IANA. The IANA has traditionally not been involved in maintaining registries for IETF process activities. 7. Security Considerations This document specifies an administrative procedure for the IETF and hence does not raise any new issues about the security of the Internet. 8. Acknowledgements [[ To be supplied ]] 9. References 9.1 Normative References [RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996. 9.2 Informative References [ISD-Examples-Process] Bradner, S., "Sample ISD for the IETF Standards Process", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-newtrk-sample-isd-00, October 2004. [RFC1311] Postel, J., "Introduction to the STD Notes", RFC 1311, Klensin Expires August 11, 2005 [Page 4] Internet-Draft IETF Standing Documents February 2005 March 1992. [RFC1396] Crocker, S., "The Process for Organization of Internet Standards Working Group (POISED)", RFC 1396, January 1993. [RFC1602] Huitema, C. and P. Gross, "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 2", RFC 1602, March 1994. [RFC2223] Postel, J. and J. Reynolds, "Instructions to RFC Authors", RFC 2223, October 1997. [RFC3774] Davies, E., "IETF Problem Statement", RFC 3774, May 2004. [repurposing-ISD] Klensin, J. and J. Loughney, "Internet Standards Documentation (ISDs)", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-newtrk-repurposing-isd-02a, February 2005. [rfc2223bis] Reynolds, J. and R. Braden, "Instructions to Request for Comments (RFC) Authors", Internet-Draft draft-rfc-editor-rfc2223bis-07, August 2003. Author's Address John C Klensin 1770 Massachusetts Ave, #322 Cambridge, MA 02140 USA Phone: +1 617 491 5735 Email: john-ietf@jck.com Klensin Expires August 11, 2005 [Page 5] Internet-Draft IETF Standing Documents February 2005 Intellectual Property Statement The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at http://www.ietf.org/ipr. The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-ipr@ietf.org. Disclaimer of Validity This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. Acknowledgment Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Klensin Expires August 11, 2005 [Page 6]