IETF Administrative Support Activity 2.0: Update to the Process for Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust
RFC 8715

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                          J. Arkko
Request for Comments: 8715                                      Ericsson
Category: Informational                                    February 2020
ISSN: 2070-1721

  IETF Administrative Support Activity 2.0: Update to the Process for
                Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust

Abstract

   This document captures the rationale for the changes introduced in
   RFC 8714, "Update to the Process for Selection of Trustees for the
   IETF Trust".

   At the time RFC 8714 was published, the changes to the IETF
   Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0 (IASA 2.0) had an impact
   on the IETF Trust because members of the IETF Administrative
   Oversight Committee (IAOC), which was being phased out, had served as
   Trustees of the IETF Trust.  This document provides background on the
   past IETF Trust arrangements, explains the effect of the rules in the
   founding documents during the transition to the new arrangement, and
   provides a rationale for the update.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are candidates for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8715.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction
   2.  Background
   3.  General Approach
   4.  Changing the Way Trustees Are Selected
   5.  Transition
   6.  Security Considerations
   7.  IANA Considerations
   8.  References
     8.1.  Normative References
     8.2.  Informative References
   Acknowledgements
   Author's Address

1.  Introduction

   This document captures the rationale for the changes introduced in
   [RFC8714].

   At the time [RFC8714] was published, the changes to the IETF
   Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0 (IASA 2.0) had an impact
   on the IETF Trust [RFC4071] [RFC4371] [RFC8711].  This is because
   members of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC), which
   was being phased out, had served as Trustees of the IETF Trust.  A
   minimal change regarding the selection of the Trustees is implemented
   by [RFC8714].

   This companion memo provides some background on the details of the
   past IETF Trust arrangements, explains the effect of the rules in the
   founding documents during the transition to the new arrangement, and
   provides a rationale for the update.

2.  Background

   The purpose of the IETF Trust is to acquire, hold, maintain, and
   license certain existing and future intellectual property and other
   property used in connection with the administration of the IETF
   [RFC8714].  The intellectual property is, for instance, rights that
   the IETF contributors grant for text in RFCs and Internet-Drafts.
   The IETF Trust also manages trademarks such as "IETF" and domain
   names such as "ietf.org".  The IETF Trust is also serving the broader
   Internet community by holding domains and trademarks associated with
   the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) [RFC7979].

   The IETF Trust is a legal entity, registered in the Commonwealth of
   Virginia [Trust-FD].

   Previously, the members of the IAOC also served as ex officio
   Trustees of the IETF Trust.  The founding documents specify persons
   eligible to become Trustees as having to be then-current members of
   the IAOC [Trust-FD].  The documents also specify that if for any
   reason there are fewer than three individuals serving as Trustees,
   then the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), or the IESG's
   successor as the leadership of the IETF, shall appoint one or more
   individuals to serve in a temporary capacity as Trustee(s) until
   eligible persons can be found.

   In the previous system, there were eight voting members of the IAOC.
   Two were named by the IETF Nominating Committee (NomCom), one by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), one by the Internet
   Architecture Board (IAB), and one by the Internet Society (ISOC)
   Board of Trustees.  There were three ex officio members via their
   roles as IETF Chair, ISOC CEO, and IAB Chair.  In addition, the IETF
   Administrative Director (IAD) was a non-voting IAOC member who also
   served as one of the Trustees.

3.  General Approach

   There were two basic approaches to resolving the issue with the
   Trustees once the IAOC ceased to exist.  One approach would be to
   merge all IETF Trust functions in the new IASA structure and under
   the new legal entity.  However, this memo advocates a second approach
   where the IETF Trust is kept independent.

   The rationale for advocating the second approach is, in part, to
   minimize changes to the IETF Trust while the IETF's administrative
   structure is undergoing major change.  In addition, the IETF Trust
   and other administrative IETF processes are quite different.  While
   very important, the IETF Trust is a low-activity entity where changes
   are minimal and gradual, and there are no pressing issues.

4.  Changing the Way Trustees Are Selected

   When the Trustees were serving on both the IETF Trust and the IAOC,
   many of the requirements for naming a particular group of people were
   driven by the IAOC's requirements.  For the IETF Trust in the new
   model, some of those arrangements were rethought, both in terms of
   the number and source of the Trustees, as well as the desired
   qualifications and length of terms.

   Several options were possible, of course.  A newly designed selection
   process could have been devised, but in this document we argue for
   limited change based largely on the fact that a) the IETF Trust
   arrangements worked generally well, b) the expected time commitment
   is expected to be modest, and c) the assets need very careful
   management.

   As a result, a smaller group of Trustees appeared sufficient.

   In addition, the terms set for the Trustees selected from the IETF
   community could be longer than the two-year period typical of other
   IETF bodies.

   One could have continued the practice of having the chairs and CEOs
   from the IETF, IAB, and Internet Society be Trustees as well, but
   this may not be necessary.  In general, the tasks of the IETF Trust
   are well defined, and while there is a need for coordination, it does
   not need to be at the level of chairs or CEOs.

   Given all this, one approach was to have Trustees appointed by the
   NomCom, the IESG, and the ISOC Board of Trustees.  (One might also
   have considered the IETF Administration LLC legal entity instead of
   the Internet Society for this role, but the Internet Society is
   perhaps more suitable for the role given their focus on the broad use
   of the IETF Trust assets and not merely administrative aspects.)

   If the same principles used for previous appointments continued to be
   used, then appointments performed by the NomCom would need to be
   confirmed by another entity.  This could be, for instance, either the
   IESG or the IAB.  The IESG had previously been the confirming body
   for the IAOC, so it has been retained in that role for the Trustees.

5.  Transition

   When the new entity for the IETF Administration LLC was set up, the
   IAOC was expected to be discontinued soon thereafter.  Fortunately,
   there was no pressing need to change all the components of the IAOC
   and its dependent organizations at the same time.  As discussed in
   Section 2, the IESG holds the ability to continue to name Trustees.
   Once the updated procedures were in place, the IETF Trust had its
   management nominated in the usual manner, and the IESG's exception
   process was no longer needed.

6.  Security Considerations

   This memo has no security implications for the Internet.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [RFC4071]  Austein, R., Ed. and B. Wijnen, Ed., "Structure of the
              IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA)", BCP 101,
              RFC 4071, DOI 10.17487/RFC4071, April 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4071>.

   [RFC4371]  Carpenter, B., Ed. and L. Lynch, Ed., "BCP 101 Update for
              IPR Trust", BCP 101, RFC 4371, DOI 10.17487/RFC4371,
              January 2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4371>.

8.2.  Informative References

   [RFC7979]  Lear, E., Ed. and R. Housley, Ed., "Response to the IANA
              Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) Request
              for Proposals on the IANA Protocol Parameters Registries",
              RFC 7979, DOI 10.17487/RFC7979, August 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7979>.

   [RFC8711]  Haberman, B., Hall, J., and J. Livingood, "Structure of
              the IETF Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0",
              BCP 101, RFC 8711, DOI 10.17487/RFC8711, February 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8711>.

   [RFC8714]  Arkko, J. and T. Hardie, "Update to the Process for
              Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust", BCP 101,
              RFC 8714, DOI 10.17487/RFC8714, February 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8714>.

   [Trust-FD] IETF Trust, "Founding Documents",
              <https://trustee.ietf.org/founding-documents.html>.

Acknowledgements

   The author would like to thank other members of the earlier IASA 2.0
   design team: Brian Haberman, Eric Rescorla, Jason Livingood, Joe
   Hall, and Leslie Daigle.  The author would also like to thank Alissa
   Cooper, Ted Hardie, Andrew Sullivan, Brian Carpenter, Lucy Lynch, and
   John Levine for interesting discussions in this problem space, and
   Adrian Farrel, Tero Kivinen, Russ Housley, Benjamin Kaduk, Adam
   Roach, and Meral Shirazipour for careful review.

Author's Address

   Jari Arkko
   Ericsson
   FI-02700 Kauniainen
   Finland

   Email: jari.arkko@piuha.net