2021-03-15-rsoc-minutes
slides-interim-2022-rfcedprog-11-sessa-2021-03-15-rsoc-minutes-00

RFC SERIES OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE (RSOC)
March 15, 2021 RSOC Meeting

Reported by: Cindy Morgan, IETF Secretariat


ATTENDEES
---------------------------------
- Sarah Banks 
- Jay Daley (IETF LLC Board Liaison, non-voting)
- Tony Hansen 
- Cullen Jennings (IAB Lead)
- John Levine, (Temporary RFC Series Project Manager, non-voting)
- Cindy Morgan (Scribe, non-voting)
- Adam Roach
- David Schinazi 
- Peter Saint-Andre (RSOC Chair) 

GUEST
---------------------------------
- Sandy Ginoza (RFC Production Center)


RSOC DECISIONS: 2021
---------------------------------
  - 2020 Decisions: 
<https://www.iab.org/wp-content/IAB-uploads/2021/01/rsoc-decisions-2020.txt>

  - 2019 Decisions: 
<https://www.iab.org/wp-content/IAB-uploads/2020/01/rsoc-decisions-2019.txt>


ACTION ITEM REVIEW
---------------------------------

  Done: 

  - 2021-01-26: Jay Daley and John Levine will work with the RPC to 
    propose changes to the boilerplate AUTH48 message that is sent to 
    authors and to the text on the RFC Editor site, in order to clarify 
    that this is approval stage and what needs to be approved.

  In Progress:

  - 2020-09-21: Jay Daley, John Levine, Henrik Levkowetz, Peter Saint-
    Andre, and Robert Sparks to work with Sandy Ginoza to propose a 
    minimum profile of v3 XML tags that the RPC would add before 
    publication of an RFC if they were not included by the authors.
    * Deadline: 2021-04

  - 2021-01-26: John Levine to start a discussion with the community 
    about whether the XML of an RFC can be changed as long as the text 
    remains immutable.
    * Deadline: 2021-03

  New:

  - 2021-03-15: All RSOC to review John Levine's text on "Updating the 
    XML in RFCs" and provide feedback.
    * Deadline: 2021-03-19.

  - 2021-03-15: John Levine and Jay Daley to draft a statement of work 
    for the RPC contract.

  - 2021-03-15: John Levine and Peter Saint-Andre to discuss the 
    prioritization and time commitment needed to put together an end-to-
    end analysis to ensure that v3 XML can be used effectively and 
    seamlessly at all stages of the authoring process (Recommendation 
    8), and report back to the RSOC.
    * Deadline 2021-04


MINUTES
---------------------------------

1. Administrivia

  The minutes of the 2021-02-23 RSOC meeting were approved. 


2. v3 Issues and Tools

  John Levine drafted some talking points about updating the XML in 
  RFCs, and sent it to RSOC for review. Peter Saint-Andre asked the RSOC 
  to review that text by 2021-03-19.

  Jay Daley said that there needs to be an outline that leads to a more 
  detailed plan for how this will be handled, and that the plan needs to 
  link to how the files are accessed. 

  John Levine replied that he would prefer not to give filenames version 
  numbers, because that will make keeping the various mirror sites in 
  sync more challenging.

  * Action item: All RSOC to review John Levine's text on "Updating the 
    XML in RFCs" and provide feedback.
    - Deadline: 2021-03-19.


3. RFC XML and Style Guide change management team

  Peter Saint-Andre reported that the RFC XML and Style Guide change 
  management team is continuing to make progress, and that he plans to 
  send an update on the current status to the RFC-interest list soon.


4. AUTH48 Process

  Sandy Ginoza reported that the RPC has updated the boilerplate AUTH48 
  message that is sent to authors and the text on the RFC Editor site 
  <https://www.rfc-editor.org/pubprocess/auth48/>, in order to clarify 
  that this is the approval stage and what needs to be approved.


5. Follow-up on I-D authors survey and recommendations in the analysis 
   report

  Jay Daley reported that there were four recommendations for the RSOC 
  that came out of the I-D authors survey <https://ql.tc/T0WvDV>:

  - Recommendation 5:  The process by which authors review RPC changes 
    should be examined with a view towards understanding what tooling is 
    required if this process is to use XML and not plain text as the 
    common format.

  - Recommendation 8:  An end-to-end analysis is carried out to ensure 
    that v3 XML can be used effectively and seamlessly at all stages of 
    the authoring process.

  - Recommendation 9:  A significant minority want to use Markdown or 
    similar and a strategic decision is needed on whether or not this 
    should be "officially" supported either in some stages or in the 
    full end-to-end authoring process. 

  - Recommendation 12:  A comprehensive study is needed of other SDOs 
    and their authoring tools and processes to see what the IETF can 
    learn and/or adopt to improve its own processes and tools.

  Cullen Jennings noted that one of the main reasons the v3 transition 
  is in its current state is that the IETF relies on having their own 
  custom tools.

  Jay Daley replied that these recommendations are intended to help 
  better understand the problem space, rather than to propose solutions. 
  He added that there are tradeoffs between commercial tools and custom, 
  homegrown tools.

  After a brief discussion, the RSOC decided to proceed with 
  Recommendations 5, 8, and 9. 

  Peter Saint-Andre suggested starting with Recommendation 8, since the 
  slow adoption of v3 XML has been a major hurdle for the RPC. From 
  there, he suggested taking on Recommendation 5, and then 
  Recommendation 9.

  The RSOC decided not to proceed with Recommendation 12 because the XML 
  used in RFCs is sufficiently different from other XML that such a 
  comparison seems unlikely to yield any helpful information.

  John Levine said that he would begin working on Recommendation 8, 
  although he is not entirely sure whether it falls under the purview of 
  the Temporary RFC Series Project Manager. John will talk offline with 
  Peter Saint-Andre about how to prioritize this with his other 
  commitments.

  * Action item: John Levine and Peter Saint-Andre to discuss the 
    prioritization and time commitment needed to put together an end-to-
    end analysis to ensure that v3 XML can be used effectively and 
    seamlessly at all stages of the authoring process (Recommendation 
    8), and report back to the RSOC.
    - Deadline 2021-04


6. RPC SOW

  John Levine and Jay Daley will draft the statement of work for the RPC 
  contract.

  * Action item: John Levine and Jay Daley to draft a statement of work 
    for the RPC contract.


7. Next RSOC Meeting

  The next RSOC meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 19 at 4:00 PM 
  PDT.