Concluded WG Process for Organization of Internet Standards ONgoing (poisson)

Note: The data for concluded WGs is occasionally incorrect.

WG Name Process for Organization of Internet Standards ONgoing
Acronym poisson
Area General Area (gen)
State Concluded
Charter charter-ietf-poisson-01 Approved
Document dependencies
Personnel Chairs Dr. John C. Klensin, James Galvin
Area Director Russ Housley
Mailing list Address poised@lists.tislabs.com
To subscribe poised-request@lists.tislabs.com
Archive ftp://ftp.tis.com/pub/lists/poised/poised.yymm

Final Charter for Working Group

The POISED working group in 1993-1994 established the basis of the IETF
process in its current form. Poised95 established a base set of
documents to describe the essentials of the IETF process. POISSON is
concerned with documenting issues relevant to the IETF process.

The name POISSON:

The tricky part of describing the IETF process, certainly in the fast
changing world of the Internet, is that when you describe the process in
too much detail, the IETF loses its flexibility, when you describe to
little it becomes unmanageable. This is therefore a slippery subject,
hence the name POISSON, which is French for fish. The French word also
serves to indicate the international aspect of the WG.

Furthermore the IETF operates by consensus, which sometimes seems to
have a POISSON distribution.

The POISSON WG will work on the following items in 1999:

  • Review of copyright issues as described in RFC2026,
    that describes the Internet standards proces.

  • Drafting of an agreement for registration and assignment of protocol
    parameters as performed by the IANA.

The WG will focus on the operational and technical aspects of the
contract. The IETF lawyer will be asked to add the necessary legal
phrases.

  • Discuss the relationship between IETF and ICANN.
    Should the IETF be participating in ICANN at all? If so, as
    part of the ICANN PSO?
    Under which conditions?

An RFC detailing the position will be published if the WG
decides that the IETF should not be part of the ICANN PSO.
RFC on proposed ICANN PSO bylaws will be produced if the WG
consensus is in favor of joining the PSO. Furthermore, in the latter
case an RFC will be produced that describes how ICANN PSO
officers (on behalf of the IETF) are to be selected.

  • Discuss an update of the Nominations Committee document RFC-2282, if
    and when the current NomCom has suggestions for changes.

Furthermore, the POISSON WG will review documents that are related to
the IETF standards process (but that will not be produced by the POISSON
WG itself) when available. Such documents may include:

  • IETF Charter; This needs to be written by the IETF chair. It is
    essentially a short mission statement like document that contains
    references to other Poised documents for further details.

  • IESG Charter; This document will be written by the IESG.

  • IAB Charter; The IAB needs to revise its charter (RFC1601).

  • Proposals related to standards publishing.

Last but not least, Poisson will serve as a generic platform where the
IAB and IESG can discuss policy questions if there is the need for
consensus polling.

Done milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Done Submit Internet-Drafts to IESG for publication as RFCs.
Done Submit final version of all drafts
Done Present ICANN related issues at IETF plenary
Done Second version of drafts for ICANN PSO bylaws and IETF PSO officer selection, or first draft describing why IETF should not be involved with ICANN
Done Submit Internet-Draft of second version of proposed IANA contract