IAB and IESG Recommendation for IETF Administrative Restructuring
RFC 4089
Network Working Group S. Hollenbeck, Ed.
Request for Comments: 4089 IAB and IESG
Category: Informational May 2005
IAB and IESG Recommendation for IETF Administrative Restructuring
Status of This Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
Abstract
This document describes a joint recommendation of the Internet
Architecture Board and the Internet Engineering Steering Group for
administrative restructuring of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
The IETF Chair declared that the IETF had consensus to follow this
recommendation on November 11, 2004. Further work has been done to
revise and refine the structures proposed. The recommendation is
being published for the record.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. The Process That Produced This Recommendation . . . . . . . . 2
3. Recommendation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Arguments That Had Particular Weight in the Discussions . . . 4
4.1. Focusing on Scenarios C and O . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2. Why We Chose Scenario O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Appendix: Scenario C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Appendix: Scenario O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
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RFC 4089 IAB-IESG AdminRest Rec May 2005
1. Introduction
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has a need for
administrative support functions. The debate and dialogue of 2003
and 2004 has led to the belief that the way these functions are
provided needs to be changed.
This document gives the recommendation of the Internet Engineering
Steering Group (IESG) and Internet Architecture Board (IAB) on what
the next step in that change process should be, and some of the
background and reasoning behind this recommendation.
2. The Process That Produced This Recommendation
During several months in 2004, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
and the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) worked together to
consider several different options for restructuring the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF) administrative functions. The goal of
this effort was to produce a recommendation for consideration by and
approval of the IETF community. The rationale for this effort is
described in RFC 3716 [1]. Much background work and several detailed
proposals for community consideration are provided in a report
prepared by a consultant titled "IETF Administrative Support
Functions" [2].
The consultant's report included several possible scenarios for
administrative restructuring (named scenario A, B, C, and D). As
discussion took place within the IETF community, it became clear that
some of the scenarios had features that appeared more promising than
others, but that we did not have enough of a concrete proposal to
crystallize opinions into a consensus for action. Members of the
IESG and IAB took on the task of working out more complete
descriptions of two of the scenarios. They were:
o Scenario C (section 4.4 of the report) describes when
"administrative support functions for the IETF are legally housed
in a focused, incorporated institution" with close ties to the
Internet Society (ISOC). Scenario C is included here as the first
appendix.
o A new scenario, called Scenario O, that includes features derived
from scenarios A and B (sections 4.2 and 4.3 of the report),
focusing on the formalization of the ISOC/IETF relationship while
housing administrative support functions for the IETF within ISOC.
Scenario O is included here as the second appendix.
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RFC 4089 IAB-IESG AdminRest Rec May 2005
These descriptions were not intended to close off discussion of other
scenarios, but to focus discussion on what appeared to be two
independent loci of support.
Both scenarios were presented to the IETF community as mail notes
(Scenario C [3], Scenario O [4]) sent to the IETF discussion list.
IETF participants' opinions, while quite divided on the subject,
seemed to indicate a preference for Scenario O as a "lower risk
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