New IETF Standards Track BOF (newtrk)

Tuesday, March 2 at 1415-1515
=============================

CHAIRS: Scott Bradner <sob@harvard.edu> 

DESCRIPTION:
The problem working group found that many IETF participants feel that the
current IETF hierarchy of Proposed, Draft and Full Standard maturity
levels for specifications is no longer being used in the way that was
envisioned when the stratification was originally proposed.  In practice,
the IETF currently has a one-step standards process. The goal of this
working group is to agree on a revised IETF Standards Track, to replace
the standards track described in RFC 2026.  The working group will also
decide on a process path forward.  

The disparity between the documented IETF standards process and what is
used in practice can cause confusion on the part of those people or
organizations that use IETF technologies. It has also led to a general
disregard of the cautions in RFC 2026 on the appropriate deployment of
IETF technologies described in Internet Drafts or Proposed Standard RFCs.
 
The NewTrk working group will be a follow on to the newtrk BOF held during the
58th IETF Meeting in Minneapolis.  That BOF was held as a result of the
work of the problem working group.

The sense of the room at the end of the newtrk BOF was that:
1. some change was needed to the IETF Standards Track
2. a revised standards track should have more than one stage
3. there should be some form of "working group snapshot," this might or
   might not be a formal stage on the standards track and might or might not
   be an archival publication
4. at least one stage should require multiple interoperable
   implementations of the technology to ensure document clarity
5. any revised standards track should include some type of "IPR hook" to
   keep the IETF and IESG out of the business of determining what IPR claims
   are legitimate and what licensing terms are fair.

The goal of this BOF is to start the process of agreeing on a revised
IETF Standards Track, taking into consideration the above points, to 
replace the standards track described in RFC 2026.  The NewTrk working group 
(when it is formed) will also decide on a process for making forward 
progress. Some of the possible paths being producing a revised version 
of RFC 2026 (and maybe other RFCs), producing a standalone document or .
documents that update parts of the existing RFCs or a mixture of the two. 
There may be other possibilities.

The NewTrk working group should also take into account other issues 
raised by the problem working group and during the newtrk BOF as needed.

The deliberations of the working group will cover at least the following
topics:
a. the standards track itself (number of stages, movement between maturity
   levels, working group snapshots, maintenance, IPR issues)
b. access to the standards track for individual submissions
c. non-standards track document categories including BCP, Informational,
   Experimental, and Historic and their relationship to the standards track 
d. usability of the standards track (bug fixes, version numbers, grouping
   multiple specifications, and maybe deprecation)

The NewTrk working group will coordinate its work with other reform
activities currently underway in the IETF.


AGENDA:

1. welcome & intro:     chair   10 min
2. dicsussion on the process NewTrk will use to update teh IETF Stds track
3. discussion on the required documents
4. discussion on the contents of the first document

3. discussion