The GeoJSON Format
draft-ietf-geojson-04

[Ballot comment]
For the most part, this is clear and readable. I only have a few comments:

- I agree with Stephen's comments.

- I note several instances of 2119 "MUST" in what looks to me like definitions, rather than requirements. For example, 'For type "MultiPoint", the "coordinates" member MUST be an array of positions.' If that is a choice among options, and you want to make sure implementers do the right thing, then MUST makes sense. On the other hand, if that is really a definitions (e.g. "... the coordinates member is an array of positions"), then MUST is not appropriate. (For the record, I'm not sure which case these fall into.)

- Abstract:  If I understand correctly, the document only allows a single coordinate system. That’s stronger than “recommends”.

- 1.3: Does this document become the authoritative spec? That is, will people need to pay attention to GJ2008 at all after this is published? if not, then maybe "obsoletes" is the correct word. (Recognizing of course that IETF procedure words may not quite apply here.)

- 3.1.6, 4th bullet: Why SHOULD? Can you imagine situations where it would be reasonable to not follow the right-hand rule?

[Ballot comment]

- The last bullet of section 3 says "any number of other
members" and in general there are no limits here on size
or complexity of the objects. (There are some should
statements, which is good.) I wonder if there's a
potential DoS vector there?  Speculating, a DoS couuld be
based on the CPU if calculations based on the object are
complex, or it could be based on the size of the object
being VERY BIG. Are either of those realistic? (I'm not
saying they are, just asking.) I'm guessing it'd not make
sense to have a max size to these things, but is there any
guidance that you could offer to implementers or would it
be good to say that implementations SHOULD have some
maximum size (I don't care how you'd want to measure that)
with a recommendation that it be able to handle things up
to at least some nominated size? (Section 11.2 does talk
about this for senders/creators but says nothing for
recipients/readers.)

- Section 10: I'd say it'd be good to add a reference to
something that describes some of the privacy issues with
objects such as these, and with potential mitigations, but
more importantly calling out that naively "fuzzing"
boundaries may not be as effective as seems at first the
case. I took a quick look and didn't find anything that
seems really good but maybe something like [1] would be a
good reference.

[1] http://www.sebastianzimmeck.de/riedererEtAlPhotograph2015ShortPaper.pdf

[Ballot comment]
In Section 12:

"applications that use this media type: various" - a bit more text about types of applications using it would be good! Please provide some examples (this is not supposed to be exhaustive list.)

"Author" and "Change Controller" fields are missing from the media type registration. These are especially important as the document was originally developed outside of IETF.

[Ballot comment]
What are %maxlat%, %minlat%, %eastlon%, and %westlon% supposed to be? I am guessing they are max and min values for latitude and longitude (e.g.+/-90 and +/-180) but I think it would be helpful to be explicit here.

(Via drafts-lastcall-comment@iana.org): IESG/Authors/WG Chairs:

IANA has completed its review of draft-ietf-geojson-03.txt. If any part of this review is inaccurate, please let us know.

IANA understands that, upon approval of this document, there is a single action which IANA must complete.

In the application media types subspace of the Media Types registry located at:

https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/

a single, new application media type will be added as follows:

Name: geo+json
Template: [ TBD-at-registration ]
Reference: [ RFC-to-be ]

IANA understands that this is the only action that needs to be completed upon approval of this document.

Note:  The actions requested in this document will not be completed until the document has been approved for publication as an RFC. This message is only to confirm what actions will be performed. 


Thank you,

Sabrina Tanamal
IANA Specialist
ICANN

The following Last Call announcement was sent out:

From: The IESG
To: "IETF-Announce"
CC: geojson@ietf.org, martin.thomson@gmail.com, alissa@cooperw.in, draft-ietf-geojson@ietf.org, geojson-chairs@ietf.org, "Martin Thomson"
Reply-To: ietf@ietf.org
Sender:
Subject: Last Call:  (The GeoJSON Format) to Proposed Standard


The IESG has received a request from the Geographic JSON WG (geojson) to
consider the following document:
- 'The GeoJSON Format'
  as Proposed Standard

The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits
final comments on this action. Please send substantive comments to the
ietf@ietf.org mailing lists by 2016-05-31. Exceptionally, comments may be
sent to iesg@ietf.org instead. In either case, please retain the
beginning of the Subject line to allow automated sorting.

Abstract


  GeoJSON is a geospatial data interchange format based on JavaScript
  Object Notation (JSON).  It defines several types of JSON objects and
  the manner in which they are combined to represent data about
  geographic features, their properties, and their spatial extents.
  This document recommends a single coordinate reference system based
  on WGS 84.  Other coordinate reference systems are not recommended.




The file can be obtained via
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-geojson/

IESG discussion can be tracked via
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-geojson/ballot/


No IPR declarations have been submitted directly on this I-D.

As required by RFC 4858, this is the current template for the Document
Shepherd Write-Up.

Changes are expected over time. This version is dated 24 February 2012.

(1) What type of RFC is being requested?

Proposed Standard.  This document specifies a protocol format.

(2) The IESG approval announcement includes a Document Announcement
Write-Up. Please provide such a Document Announcement Write-Up. Recent
examples can be found in the "Action" announcements for approved
documents. The approval announcement contains the following sections:

Technical Summary

  GeoJSON is a geospatial data interchange format based on JavaScript
  Object Notation (JSON).

Working Group Summary

  The working group had good discussion around the changes made
  to this version over the version that was widely deployed.  There was
  good consensus for the changes made (these are summarized in
  Appendix B).

Document Quality

  GeoJSON is widely implemented and used already.  The changes made
  by the working group are largely formal in nature, though this includes
  a new media type (the "vnd." prefix has been dropped).  The media
  type change has been proposed and reviewed, see
  https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/media-types/hUlxdmrz6nid3er1XXK86cgxIkA

  Considerable debate was had over the inclusion of the "crs" member.
  The working group has consensus around the text in -03.

Personnel

  Martin Thomson is the document shepherd.
  Alissa Cooper is the responsible AD.

--
  A technical and editorial review has been performed by the
  shepherd and media type (see
  https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/media-types/hUlxdmrz6nid3er1XXK86cgxIkA)
 
  The working group has strong consensus to publish the document.
  Several of the changes made during the process were a little
  contentious, but there was consensus on the outcome of each issue.

  idnits shows only bogus warnings.
  References are correctly allocated to sections.
  A single media type is requested of IANA; this has been reviewed.
  There are no IPR disclosures and authors have acknowledged this.
  The examples in the document are valid JSON according to jsonlint.com

As required by RFC 4858, this is the current template for the Document
Shepherd Write-Up.

Changes are expected over time. This version is dated 24 February 2012.

(1) What type of RFC is being requested?

Proposed Standard.  This document specifies a protocol format.

(2) The IESG approval announcement includes a Document Announcement
Write-Up. Please provide such a Document Announcement Write-Up. Recent
examples can be found in the "Action" announcements for approved
documents. The approval announcement contains the following sections:

Technical Summary

  GeoJSON is a geospatial data interchange format based on JavaScript
  Object Notation (JSON).

Working Group Summary

  The working group had good discussion around the changes made
  to this version over the version that was widely deployed.  There was
  good consensus for the changes made (these are summarized in
  Appendix B).

Document Quality

  GeoJSON is widely implemented and used already.  The changes made
  by the working group are largely formal in nature, though this includes
  a new media type (the "vnd." prefix has been dropped).  The media
  type change has been proposed and reviewed, see
  https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/media-types/hUlxdmrz6nid3er1XXK86cgxIkA

Personnel

  Martin Thomson is the document shepherd.
  Alissa Cooper is the responsible AD.

--
  A technical and editorial review has been performed by the
  shepherd and media type (see
  https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/media-types/hUlxdmrz6nid3er1XXK86cgxIkA)
 
  The working group has strong consensus to publish the document.
  Several of the changes made during the process were a little
  contentious, but there was consensus on the outcome of each issue.

  idnits shows only bogus warnings.
  References are correctly allocated to sections.
  A single media type is requested of IANA; this has been reviewed.
  There are no IPR disclosures and authors have acknowledged this.
  The examples in the document are valid JSON according to jsonlint.com

As required by RFC 4858, this is the current template for the Document
Shepherd Write-Up.

Changes are expected over time. This version is dated 24 February 2012.

(1) What type of RFC is being requested?

Proposed Standard.  This document specifies a protocol format.

(2) The IESG approval announcement includes a Document Announcement
Write-Up. Please provide such a Document Announcement Write-Up. Recent
examples can be found in the "Action" announcements for approved
documents. The approval announcement contains the following sections:

Technical Summary

  GeoJSON is a geospatial data interchange format based on JavaScript
  Object Notation (JSON).

Working Group Summary

  The working group had good discussion around the changes made
  to this version over the version that was widely deployed.  There was
  good consensus for the changes made (these are summarized in
  Appendix B).

Document Quality

  GeoJSON is widely implemented and used already.  The changes made
  by the working group are largely formal in nature, though this includes
  a new media type (the "vnd." prefix has been dropped).  The media
  type change has been proposed and reviewed, see
  https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/media-types/hUlxdmrz6nid3er1XXK86cgxIkA

Personnel

  Martin Thomson is the document shepherd.
  Alissa Cooper is the responsible AD.

--
  A technical and editorial review has been performed by the
  shepherd and media type (see
  https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/media-types/hUlxdmrz6nid3er1XXK86cgxIkA)
 
  The working group has strong consensus to publish the document.
  Several of the changes made during the process were a little
  contentious, but there was consensus on the outcome of each issue.

  idnits shows only bogus warnings.
  References are correctly allocated to sections.
  A single media type is requested of IANA; this has been reviewed.
  There are no IPR disclosures and authors have acknowledged this.
  The examples in the document are valid JSON according to jsonlint.com