IRC Update
charter-ietf-ircup-01

For some time the internet community has been using the IRC protocol, as
the
basis for building community focused, text based conferencing networks.
The IRC client/server implementations have, until recently, been based
on
RFC-1459.

Due to limitations in real-world aspects of RFC-1459, such as
scalability,
internationalisation, security and extensibility, the emergence of
custom
alterations to the IRC RFC have clearly caused a divergence amongst the
collective development of global IRC networks to the extent that they
are no
longer interoperable from a network to network perspective, and have
confused the situation with respect to the
client to server operability.

As a result from these divergent development streams, it has been
identified,
through co-operative mailing list discussions, that some common features
and
protocol changes can be agreed upon and submitted as an enhancement or
superceding amendment to the current RFC-1459.

The aim of this BOF is to outline the common issues and concerns, to
formulate a working group that will document problems in implementing
RFC-1459 and develop solutions to these problems in the form of an
updated
RFC, or extensions to the current RFC-1459.

The following agenda outlines the tasks that will be performed at the
BOF meeting.