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NomCom 2018 Concluded

Desired expertise

These pages contain the current summaries of desired expertise for open positions, provided to the NomCom by the IESG, IAB, and IAOC. As the NomCom proceeds, per BCP 10, we receive input from the community on the qualifications required for the positions. The NomCom bases selections on all of this information. These pages may be updated periodically.

This is the summary of the required expertise for an IAB Member:

The IAB Role

The IAB is chartered both as a committee of the IETF and as an advisory body of the Internet Society. The IAB acts as a source of advice and guidance concerning technical, architectural and procedural matters pertaining to the Internet and its enabling technologies; this includes both reviewing proposed new work and providing input to the IESG as well as providing perspective to the broader community on important issues. The IAB develops and documents architectural insight and guidance for the Internet. It provides architectural input into IETF technical activities as well as sponsoring and organizing work in the IRTF. The IAB also has several procedural roles to support the operation of the IETF including being the formal channel for liaisons with other organizations.

Architectural role

The IAB oversees various aspects of the architecture for the protocols and technical specifications as developed by the IETF, as well as overseeing activities in the IRTF. While the IAB does draw on specific expertise as required, it is expected that the sum of the expertise of IAB members encompasses a broad range of technologies under IETF and IRTF study, and also encompasses a broad range of perspectives on these specifications, from research and academic study through development, deployment and operational experience.

A major role of the IAB is to take a broad and long range perspective to offer input into the planning and coordination among different areas of Internet activities, including those of the IETF and IRTF. The IAB, both collectively and on an individual basis, is expected to pay attention to important long- term issues in the Internet, to make sure that these issues are brought to the attention of the groups that are in a position to address them, and to make sure that the right people within these groups are in contact with each other. To foster this community-building role, the IAB maintains open communications channels with other bodies engaged in Internet governance, including ICANN, the Regional Internet Registries, and ISOC, and provides technical and architectural input as appropriate. As needed, the IAB works with ISOC to provide advice and guidance to the Internet community on technical, architectural, procedural, and policy matters pertaining to the Internet and its enabling technologies. That advice and guidance are provided to the public, to the Board of Trustees and Officers of the Internet Society, and to the larger community as circumstances dictate.

Organizational role

The IAB has a number of roles within the organizational functioning of the IETF. While these roles require administrative rather than technical work, they form a large and important part of the IABs activities. All IAB members need to be prepared to participate (to varying degrees) in these activities.

The IAB serves as an appeal board for complaints of improper execution of the standards process, acting on appeals in respect of IESG standards decisions. In addition, the IAB appoints ISOC BoT members as well as a trustee of the IETF Trust, and hears appeals on matters related to the IAD.

The IAB is responsible for the RFC Editor function, including appointing and overseeing the RFC Series Editor. The IAB provides direction for the administration of the IETF's protocol parameters registries (the IANA function). The IAB selects the chair of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) for a renewable two year term, and oversees the IRTF's activities.

The IAB has a role in the IETF Nominations Committee process: the IAB confirms the IETF Chair and the Area Directors (IESG).

The IAB is responsible for liaisons between the IETF and other organizations that undertake activities that overlap or intersect with the IETF's activities including other standards development organizations. The IAB appoints liaison managers to manage these relationships, and deals with liaison matters of an architectural or general procedural nature. The IAB becomes actively involved when these liaison relationships have difficulties, for example, in determining clear boundaries of responsibility. The IAB also appoints a member to the ICANN Nomcom and a liaison to the ICANN board to represent the IETF's interests within ICANN. IAB members fulfill the role of liaison "shepherds" to advise the liaison managers and to act as review point for assessing the efficacy of liaison activities and the liaison manager's duties.

IAB Organization

In order to enhance institutional memory and enable the development of medium and long term activities, the IAB has organized its work in several areas in the form of programs. A program is a high priority, long term activity scoped and managed by the IAB, which can be thought of as an IAB directorate, small task force, or an ad-hoc body of (independent) technical experts (see RFC 2850 Section 2.1). Program outputs include IAB documents and statements. All IAB members are expected to review and comment on program outputs that represent the consensus of the IAB. In order to ensure that all IAB activities have IAB participation, members of the IAB are expected to actively participate in one or more programs.

The program leads, who will usually be IAB members, communicate the program plan to the community, solicit feedback, facilitate activities within the program, provide oversight and ensure continuity. The program lead will typically nominate non-IAB members to the program, subject to IAB approval, will develop the program plan, will organize regular program conference calls, and will develop consensus within the program for recommendations to be made to the IAB. The lead doesn’t need to have specific expertise in the area, but must have good general understanding of the issues from technical, business, and or policy perspective. The IAB as a whole periodically reviews the state of the programs and their progress, and makes necessary adjustments and prioritization. This includes a review of the program membership, activity plan and progress against deliverables. Current IAB programs include: - IANA Program - IP Stack Evolution Program - Liaison Oversight Program - Plenary Planning Program - Privacy and Security Program - RFC Editor Series Oversight Committee

In addition, the IAB chooses a chair for a one year term at the March IETF meeting, after new members of the IAB are seated. The chair represents the IAB externally when necessary, and is an ex officio member of the IESG. There shall be at least two members of the IAB (among the nominated slate and the incumbents) who are willing and able to take the role of Chair.

IAB Member Qualities

IAB members are expected to act at the "Board" level.

The IAB is most effective when it is composed of a diverse set of individuals with a broad range of technical skills, architectural perspectives and backgrounds. For example, it is desirable for IAB members to have technical leadership experience, operational management backgrounds, research or academic backgrounds, implementation experience, and experience in other bodies involved in Internet governance. Likewise it is desirable for IAB members to have had experiences with differing technical challenges and requirements, including those that vary by geographic region. It is critical that IAB members be willing and able to work with each other to develop a shared viewpoint.

Some IAB activities are very specialized - for example, managing liaison relationships with other SDOs on behalf of the IETF. It is advantageous for the IAB when NomCom ensures that at least some IAB members have sufficient managerial skills to understand the issues that need to come to the IAB by managing and documenting inter-SDO liaison relationships on a strategic basis.

While it is advantageous for at least some IAB membership to have expertise in the IAB's current program topics, it is more important for the IAB to have membership who are experienced in managing volunteer teams, and who can build teams, motivate program work, and direct one or more programs even in the absence of in-depth knowledge about specific program topics. The IAB needs at least some members with program management skills that will facilitate interfacing between programs and the IAB.

IAB members...

  • are highly regarded in one or more domains of technical subject matter. They may be recognized in a particular area as being a domain expert, but also exhibit advanced - - architectural and technical competence.
  • are willing and able to apply those technical skills and analytic thinking to understand and usefully contribute to discussions in other areas and to have interests broad enough that they are willing and able to contribute to discussions on new areas as appropriate.
  • are willing and able to apply their managerial skills to new areas.
  • are willing and able to make introductions among their networks of technical experts in support of the IAB's community-building role.
  • are constructive in framing new approaches, technically or in terms of communication.
  • are willing and able to work well with others.
  • are willing and able to constructively contribute to consensus-based processes.
  • have substantial experience within the IETF, and an understanding of its processes and workings.
  • are willing and able to commit the time to follow IAB, IRTF and IETF discussions on a regular basis. This commitment should extend to regular attendance at IAB teleconferences and attendance in person at IETF meetings, IAB workshops, an annual IAB retreat, as well as the commitment to review material and generate and edit documentation. This may also extend to leading open discussion forums and active participation in IETF WG and IRTF RG activities.

Time Commitment

The time commitment for an IAB member averages about six to sixteen hours a week in normal weeks (with significant week-to-week variability), and full-time during IETF meetings, retreats, and IAB workshops. This commitment could be higher, since it is expected that IAB members also actively participate in IETF activities. Simply tracking the various mailing list and documents can take up to a day a week. About a quarter to half of the time is spent on the organizational activities. Leading a program is an equivalent time commitment to chairing a working group, and active participation in a program an equivalent time commitment to authoring one or more documents in a working group. Each IAB member should be able to commit to leading a program during their IAB term.

Some positions within the IAB require more time. The typical time commitment for the IAB Chair is three days a week, and this position may require more travel. The IAB Chair is an ex officio member of the IESG, as well, and must devote time to the meetings of these organizations.

IAB members may be tapped by ADs to do reviews of specialized documents and other tasks, potentially adding to those numbers. IAB members should plan to arrive at IETF meetings on the Saturday preceding the meeting. Time commitment during the meeting includes time on Sunday, early mornings during the week, Friday afternoons, as well as coverage of BoFs during the meeting for technical and architectural review.

An annual retreat will be scheduled for up to three days in late April or early May.

The IAB schedules workshops on topics of interest from time to time, and IAB members are encouraged to attend these as well.

Membership

The incumbents are:

  • Jari Arkko
  • Gabriel Montenegro
  • Mark Nottingham
  • Robert Sparks
  • Jeff Tantsura
  • Suzanne Woolf

Continuing IAB members are:

  • Ted Hardie
  • Christian Huitema
  • Erik Nordmark
  • Melinda Shore
  • Martin Thomson
  • Brian Trammell

This is the summary of the required expertise for the LLC Board Director position

IETF Administration LLC Board Director Role

Overview of the IETF Administration LLC

The IETF Administration LLC ("IETF LLC") provides a corporate legal framework for facilitating current and future activities related to the Internet Engineering Task Force as well as its sister organizations, the Internet Architecture Board ("IAB") and the Internet Research Task Force ("IRTF"). IETF LLC exists to provide administrative support to these organizations. Its responsibilities are:
  • Operations. IETF LLC is responsible for supporting the ongoing operations of the IETF, including meetings and non-meeting activities.
  • Finances. IETF LLC is responsible for managing the IETF's finances and budget.
  • Fundraising. IETF LLC is responsible for raising money on behalf of the IETF.
  • Compliance. IETF LLC is responsible for establishing and enforcing policies to ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and rules.

Relation to the Internet Society

IETF LLC is organized as a “disregarded entity” of the Internet Society ("ISOC"), which means it operates as a branch or division of ISOC for tax purposes. ISOC is a US501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 1992 that supports and promotes the development of the Internet as a global technical infrastructure, a resource to enrich people’s lives, and a force for good in society.

Establishment of the IETF LLC

IETF LLC will be established in late 2018. It will initially be managed by an interim board of directors until the first full board of directors is seated in late 2018 or early 2019, which depends upon NomCom appointments.

IETF LLC Board Overview

Candidates are sought for the role of board director on the first full board. All board directors are unpaid volunteers.

The IETF LLC Board of Directors is responsible for setting broad strategic direction for IETF LLC on administrative, legal, financial and other non-technical areas. The board will be responsible for hiring and supervising an Executive Director. The Executive Director will be responsible for managing the day-to-day affairs of IETF LLC, including hiring staff to carry out the LLC’s responsibilities.

The board’s other responsibilities include adopting an annual budget, adopting employee benefit plans, consulting the IETF community on matters as appropriate, and approving entering into agreements that that meet a significant materiality threshold. Ideally, some board directors will be positioned to play an active role in helping to secure financial resources for the IETF and to leverage personal connections that help the staff identify and solicit potential funders. The board’s work is high-level and strategic; the board is expected to delegate management of day-to-day activities and related decision-making to staff.

Candidate Experience

Ideal candidates for the role of board director should have prior professional experience with:
  • Executive management, compensation, and performance review;
  • Financial management and budgeting on a seven-figure scale;
  • Working with legal counsel to address organization-related legal and compliance issues;
  • Fundraising in the non-profit sector;
  • Working with geographically diverse colleagues and populations; and/or
  • Interpersonal skills necessary to work within a distributed team focused on enabling the IETF to fulfill its mission.

Preference may be given to candidates with prior non-profit or corporate board experience and/or prior experience with the IETF or other similar technical or standards development organizations.

It seems unlikely each candidate will bring all of this experience individually. So the NomCom may wish to focus on a balance among the desired qualifications across the three final appointees, as a combined slate with complimentary skills and experience.

Candidate Requirements

Requirements for the role of board director include:
  • Taking on legal and fiduciary responsibility for IETF LLC.
  • Traveling to board meetings multiple times per year. The number of meetings per year, their locations, decisions about co-locating them with IETF meetings, and availability of travel funding will be decided at the board’s discretion with input from the IETF community.
  • Attending regular conference calls, potentially in different time zones outside of normal business hours.
  • Preparing for board meetings and calls in advance and actively participating inboard discussions.
  • Making heavy use of email and other online communications tools as key means for advancing the work of the board and conversing with staff and IETF participants.
  • Operating transparently and engaging openly with the IETF community and the staff.
  • Acting in compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and board policies.

In the board’s first year it is anticipated that board directors will spend an average of four hours per week on the board’s work.

Initial IETF LLC Board Priorities

The initial priorities and key tasks of the IETF LLC Board are listed in Section 9.1 of https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-iasa2-struct.

This is the summary of the required expertise for the position IESG Members:

2018 Generic Expertise

IESG Summary of Candidates' Desired Expertise

This note describes the expertise desired in the candidates selected to fill the positions of the IESG members whose terms will expire during the first IETF Meeting in 2019.

Under the Nominations Committee (!NomCom) procedures defined in RFC 7437/BCP 10, the IESG is responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates selected for open IESG positions. This information is included below, and is suitable for publication to the community with the !NomCom request for nominations.

We realize that this is a long list of desires, and that no one person will be able meet all of the expertise for a specific position. We trust that the !NomCom will weigh all of these qualities and choose IESG members who represent the best possible balance of them.


GENERIC IESG MEMBER EXPERTISE

IESG members are the managers of the IETF standards process. They must understand the way the IETF works, recognize where the organization needs to evolve, be good at working with other people, be able to inspire and encourage other people to work together as volunteers, and have sound technical judgment about IETF technology and its relationship to technology developed elsewhere.

Area Directors (ADs) select the Working Group (WG) Chairs, and then work with them to manage IETF WGs. Consequently, IESG members should possess sufficient interpersonal and management skills to manage 15 to 30 part-time people. Most ADs are also responsible for the management of one or more directorates or review teams. The ability to identify good leaders and technical experts, and then recruit them for IETF work and leadership at all levels is important.

ADs are also expected to understand where there is a need to change either IETF processes or IETF's overall role as the Internet and the industry around it evolves.

An ideal IESG member has made significant technical contributions in more than one IETF Area. The Area Director role includes significant people management, for which prior experience chairing a working group will be useful – although other people-management experience may be a reasonable substitute. Similarly, the ability to review and usefully provide feedback on technical documents is a necessary skill for IESG members, for which serving on an area directorate or area review team would provide useful experience; active participation in working groups and other, non-IETF technical review activities can also be helpful in building such skills. Breadth of technical ability and the facility to quickly grasp concepts outside of their strongest areas are more important than specific technical expertise. Experience from a broad range of backgrounds across the entire IESG is desirable.

An AD need not be the ultimate expert and authority in any technical area. The abilities to manage, to guide and judge consensus, to know who the subject-matter experts are and to seek their advice, and to mentor other IETF participants to take the technical lead is at least as important as their own technical abilities. Although the split varies from area-to-area, ADs can expect to spend approximately 30% of their time on management tasks, with the remainder being technical in nature.

An AD should be able to personally review every Internet-Draft that they sponsor. For other Internet-Drafts an AD needs to be satisfied that adequate review has taken place, though many ADs personally review these documents as well. After the 2015 reorganization of IETF areas and IESG procedures, assignments of ADs to specific working groups are more flexible than they were previously, and can accommodate the expertise available in the IESG as a whole.

It is very helpful for an IESG member to have a good working knowledge of the IETF document process as well as WG creation and chartering process. This knowledge is most likely to be found in experienced WG Chairs, but may also be found in authors of multiple documents. It is very helpful for an IESG member to have experience attending multiple IETF meetings, creating WG session agendas, supervising WG sessions, and helping to arrange interim WG meetings.

IESG members must have strong oral and written communications skills. They must have a proven track record of leading and contributing to the consensus of diverse groups. They must be able to prioritize their work, and must reliably follow through and finish the important work items in a timely manner.

An IESG member should be able to guide WGs to follow their charters and nurture new talent to fulfill IETF leadership roles in the future.

Basic IESG activities can consume significant time during a typical non-meeting week. Enough time must be allocated to manage approximately 10 to 15 working groups, to read on the order of 500 pages of internet-drafts every two weeks, and to follow up on document processing tasks. Many ADs allocate 15 hours or more per week to such tasks. Some ADs have been able to combine significant other responsibilities with an AD role and/or delegate work to area directorates, while others put a larger proportion of their hours into AD responsibilities. A personal commitment is critical.

The time commitment varies by Area and by month, with the most intense periods immediately before and during IETF meetings. ADs during their first year tend to spend more time per week on AD work. Practices vary widely between IESG members, however. Most IESG members also participate in additional IETF leadership activities, further increasing the time commitment for those individuals. ADs may need to interact with external groups such as other standards development organizations (SDOs), which may require additional travel. We have also found IESG member attendance at most IETF meetings to be imperative, typically arriving one or two days early. IESG members also attend one, and sometimes two, IESG retreats per year, as well as occasional workshops and interim meetings.

Because of the time and travel commitments, and awkwardly timed conference calls, IESG members have found that good personal motivation and family and sponsor support are important factors in making the role successful for them.

This is the summary of the required expertise for the position IETF Chair (Gen AD):

2019 IETF Chair / General AD Desired Expertise

The IETF Chair has six major roles: overseeing the work of the IETF as a whole, representing the IETF to the outside world, overseeing the work of the IESG in particular, serving as the General AD, serving as a voting member of the IAB, and serving as a voting member of the IAOC and the IETF Trust. Due to the administrative changes associated with the IASA 2.0 process, the IETF Chair’s role as a voting member of the IAOC is very likely to be replaced with a role as a voting member on the board of the IETF Administration LLC.

Serving as IETF Chair is a full-time job. A candidate for this position needs to be willing to put aside his or her own technical work and other major professional roles for the duration of the term.

Chairing the IETF requires excellent communications skills, strong leadership skills, the ability and willingness to keep the community informed of all issues that are important to the IETF as a whole, the ability to establish community consensus on issues important to the IETF as a whole, and the ability to speak and act in accordance with that consensus. Among other things, this involves working with the IAB Chair to plan plenary sessions and effectively running meetings with over 1000 attendees.

In the IESG Chair role, the IETF Chair is responsible for coordinating the activities of the other ADs and providing top-level management for the IETF standards process. The IETF Chair must be capable of intervening when difficulties arise between ADs or between an AD and a WG Chair. The IETF Chair also oversees the handling of appeals sent to the IESG, the mechanisms for IESG internal process change, and the production of any statements issued by the IESG.

The General Area consists of very few WGs and other activities focused on supporting, updating and maintaining the IETF standards development process. As General AD, the IETF Chair should meet the generic requirements for an IESG member listed above, and is expected to play a full role in IESG document review and approval. The General AD must also have a strong understanding of the IETF standards process and a commitment to maintain and improve that process in a careful and open manner. The General AD manages the General Area Review Team (Gen-ART) and other IETF-wide directorates.

The IETF Chair is a voting member of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). The IAB has a long history, but the IAB is currently viewed as the senior committee working with the IETF to provide both architectural and oversight functions for the development of the Internet. The IETF Chair brings important perspective to the oversight of the RFC Editor, the IANA functions, and the liaison process with other SDOs. The IAB also has a role in appeals and confirmation of NomCom candidate selection for IESG members; however, since the IETF Chair is also an IESG member, IETF Chair is recused from these activities.

The IETF Chair currently serves as a voting member of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) and as a Trustee of the IETF Trust. Given the current status of IASA 2.0, the IAOC is very likely to be dissolved and replaced with the IETF Administration LLC board. The IETF Chair would serve on the board and have fiduciary responsibility to the LLC. Although day-to-day management of administrative matters is currently handled by the IETF Administrative Director (IAD) and in the future will very likely be handled by LLC staff, the IETF Chair will spend some time each week on administrative or Trust business, particularly in the context of ensuring the IETF is properly supported by its staff and contractors.

The IETF Chair is asked to speak at numerous conferences and to represent the IETF to government officials, representatives of other standards bodies and the press. While the IETF Chair has control over which of these invitations he or she accepts, any candidate for this position should be willing and able to represent the IETF effectively in these fora, in consultation with the IAB Chair as appropriate.

The IETF Chair needs to be able to lead and work with others on communications related to the IETF and its visions, values, work activities, and successes. This includes answering requests to explain the IETF to people who are not familiar with it or its work. To do this, the IETF Chair uses different communication styles and methods than those needed to effectively lead and work with others within the IETF. For example, the IETF Chair may be asked to communicate with news media, help develop approaches for and use channels such as social media, and speak with non-technical audiences beyond the immediate IETF community.

This is the summary of the required expertise for the position ART AD:

2019 Applications and Real Time (ART) Desired Expertise

Applications and Real Time (ART)

The ART Area works on application layer and related protocols. It encompasses several areas of work:

  1. "Infrastructure" protocols. These are underpinnings for other application-layer protocols. They sit above transport protocols, and should not themselves be considered "transport", but they are often or usually used by other application-layer protocols as a layer between applications and transport. Current work in this category includes evolution, maintenance, and extensions to HTTP, SIP, !Audio/Video Transport, RTSP, and codec development.
  2. Real-time applications. These are protocols that enable interactive human-to-human communication (see RFC 3550). Groups in this category are working on things such as real-time web communications, teleconferencing, emergency services communication, internet telephony, and instant messaging.
  3. Traditional applications. These are the protocols we've generally thought of in relation to the application layer. They include such things as email, calendaring, directory services, non-real-time web services, and support for constrained environments.
  4. Application building blocks. These are designed to be used with a variety of more specific applications. They include internationalization, JSON and XML, media types, URNs, and URI schemes.

The ART Area often discusses whether something is properly the realm of the IETF or "belongs" to other SDOs. The ART Area often re-uses technology developed elsewhere. As a result, the set of ART ADs needs to include the ability and experience to relate to a wide range of non-IETF organizations, such as the W3C, 3GPP and Unicode Consortium.

ART ADs are expected to take a lead role, guiding the community in the making of critical decisions about the scope of the IETF's applications-layer protocol work. Because of the breadth of the ART Area, the ART ADs need to deal with a large set of application-layer protocols, including many with which a particular AD may not have direct experience. ART ADs need to be good at evaluating new approaches to new problems and assessing the expertise of the people who bring them to the IETF. They need to connect well with the community, and know whom to go to for technical advice.

The set of people active in the ART Area changes with the protocols under development at the time. Therefore it is important that the ART ADs be able to clearly explain how the IETF works and to help new participants and working groups operate well, within the IETF standards process. The ability to reach out to new technology communities is important, so that the ART Area stays relevant to the ongoing evolution of Internet applications.

Cross-area expertise with the Security and Transport Areas is also useful, as there are often dependencies between ART work and those areas, particularly with respect to authentication, confidentiality, privacy, network congestion issues, and newly evolving work in the Transport Area.

ART ADs should be prepared to spend 50-75% of their time on IESG-related activities.

This description has been careful to talk about the set of ART ADs as a collective, with a collective set of skills. No one AD will have all of them, and it would be best to look at a balanced skill set across the ART ADs. A generalist with good management skills and good working relationships within the community will be more successful than a narrow specialist. That said, the particular challenges of certain aspects of ART Area work mean that it's important that for each of the following there be at least one AD with a good understanding of it: internationalization; URI schemes; SIP, SDP and related services; RTP; real-time web communications; web services; media types; and e-mail.

This is the summary of the required expertise for the position INT AD:

2019 Internet Desired Expertise

The primary technical topics covered by the Internet Area include: the IP layer (both IPv4 and IPv6), implications of IPv6 address adoption, co-existence between the IP versions, DNS, DHCP, mobility, multihoming, multicast, host and router configuration, time protocols, and Internet of Things, along with various link-layer technologies.

The Internet Area is responsible for specifying how IP will run over new link layer protocols as they are defined. A significant number of the new link-layer protocols being defined now are in emerging technologies like IoT or constrained networking.

Between them, the Internet ADs are expected to have a solid understanding of these technologies, including issues related to IP addressing, name resolution, forwarding, tunneling, and fragmentation.

Since the Internet Area includes a broad range of technical topics, the Internet Area ADs typically divide the WGs that they manage based on workload and expertise. To assist the ADs, there is an active Internet Area directorate and an active IoT Directorate. However, with the large number of WGs, the Internet Area has historically required considerable time commitment and breadth of expertise from its ADs. As the role of the AD requires significant interaction with the Internet Area directorates, the Internet area workgroups, and other Areas, the ADs are expected to have awareness of contemporary management techniques in dealing with change and challenging technical and personnel situations.

The Internet Area traditionally intersects most frequently with all of the other Areas. Interaction with the Transport Area is related to work on address translation, IPv4-IPv6 co-existence, and multihoming mechanisms. Interaction with the Routing Area concentrates mainly on the relationship between the operation of the IP layer and routing functionality. Interaction with the Operations and Management Area is focused on operations required for IPv6 adoption, YANG development, and AAA interactions. Interaction with the Security Area is focused on topics such as IPsec usage, DNS security, and network access control. The touchpoints with the ART area are related to the IoT space where there are tight interactions between application-layer protocols such as CoAP and IPv6-over-constrained-link-layer adaptations in order to provide better efficiency. Cross-area expertise in any of these Areas is particularly useful.

The Internet Area is also often involved in the adaptation of a variety of technologies to IP, some of which may require interactions with many other organizations such as 5G, 3GPP, ETSI, the ITU, IEEE, BBF, and CableLabs. Expertise with liaison processes and an understanding of how Internet Area protocols are used in various networks (such as Broadband, wireless & cellular networks, low-power networks, and the "Internet of Things"), is desirable. Given all of the above an ideal candidate, in this cycle, should have a deep understanding of DNS, DHCP, Multihoming, and Time Protocols.

This is the summary of the required expertise for the position Operations AD:

2019 Operations Desired Expertise

Operations and Management

The primary technical areas covered by the Operations & Management Area include: Various operational issues facing the Internet such as DNS operations, IPv6 operations, Routing operations, Benchmarking, and Network Management and AAA.

Unlike most IETF areas, the Operations & Management area is logically divided into two separate functions: Network Management and Operations. This year, the Operations AD role is open, so specific expertise required for the open position includes a strong understanding of Internet operations, as well as the ability to step into Network Management issues when necessary.

The Operations AD is largely responsible for soliciting operator feedback and input regarding IETF work. This is a challenging task that requires strong contacts in the operations community and a great deal of persistence to maintain constructive engagement.

Another important role of the Operations AD is to identify potential or actual operational issues regarding IETF protocols and documents in all areas, and to work with the other areas to resolve those issues. This requires a strong understanding of how new and updated protocols may affect operations, and the ability to gather information from the operations community and translate that information into suggestions for protocol architecture and design within the IETF. It also requires a strong cross-area understanding of IETF protocol architecture and technologies.

The Operations portion of the OPS area interacts most often with the Routing, Internet and Security areas. So, cross-area expertise in any of those areas would be particularly useful.

This is the summary of the required expertise for the position Routing AD:

2019 Routing Desired Expertise

Routing

The Routing Area is responsible for facilitating the operation of the Internet routing system by maintaining and improving the scalability and stability characteristics of the existing routing protocols, as well as developing new protocols, extensions, and bug fixes in a timely manner. Forwarding methods (such as destination-based unicast and multicast forwarding, MPLS, and pseudowire) as well as associated routing and signaling protocols (such as OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, RSVP-TE, LDP, PIM, RPL, and VPNs at Layer 2, Layer 3), and both centralized and distributed routing architectures (to address, for example, virtualization, service chaining, traffic engineering and data center routing) are within the scope of the Routing Area. The interactions of routing systems with configuration and orchestration platforms (for example, routing-related YANG models and path computation engines) are handled in the routing area. The Routing Area also works on Generalized MPLS used in the control plane of optical networks as well as security and manageability aspects of the routing system. The Routing Area Working Groups cover a wide range of data plane technologies (Layer 1, Layer 2, Layer 3) and control protocols.

A Routing AD must have solid knowledge of the Internet routing system and its operations. A Routing AD must be proficient in at least one of the mainstream routing protocol or technology such as BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS, GMPLS, or multicast. A Routing AD should have some knowledge of routing services (pseudo-wire, L2VPN, L3VPN). Some familiarity with recent trends in routing (new routing management models, wireless) would be helpful. Implementation, deployment and operational experience as well as significant contributions to the WGs in the Routing Area are highly desirable. It is desired for a Routing AD to have experience in the operation, deployment and/or implementation of routing protocols in non-traditional environments such as mobile, ad hoc and sensor networks (and other IoT-related deployments), including an understanding of interactions with other network systems, including security and management.

Currently, the Routing Area is managed by three Area Directors who typically divide the WGs that they each manage based on workload and expertise. To assist the ADs, there is an active Routing Area directorate that provides technical reviews on demand. Given the broad range of technical topics that have relationship among them, the Routing ADs closely coordinate the overall direction of the area between them and by routinely engaging the WG Chairs. Besides IESG-level commitments, the Routing ADs meet periodically among themselves and organize training and other informal meetings with the WG Chairs.

The Routing Area intersects most frequently with the Internet Area, the Operations and Management Area, and the Security Area. Interaction with the Internet Area concentrates mainly on IP forwarding and encapsulation. With the Operations and Management Area the focus is on development of YANG models and on consideration of management and operation of routing infrastructure. With the Security Area the ongoing focus is on routing protocol security and its impact on the Internet's infrastructure security. Cross-area expertise in any of those areas would be useful.

Work in the Routing Area often overlaps with work in other SDOs. In particular, there have been interactions with the ITU-T on MPLS-related topics, and with the IEEE. Knowledge of the workings of other SDOs would be beneficial.

This is the summary of the required expertise for the position Security AD:

2019 Security Desired Expertise

Security

The Security Area primarily focuses on protocols that provide one or more security services -- integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and access control -- and on protocols operating on infrastructure that provides such security services. Many security mechanisms that are needed to provide these security services employ the use of cryptography. In addition to traditional security issues, the privacy and usability of IETF protocols has become an important consideration.

Specific expertise required for a Security AD includes a strong working knowledge of IETF security protocols and mechanisms that have been developed in the Security Area, other Areas of the IETF, and outside the IETF. It is also important for Security ADs to understand the practical aspects of securing Internet resources, such as techniques for denial-of-service mitigation or for securing Web applications. A good understanding of threat modeling and risk assessment as well as operational and industry practices is also beneficial.

Between the two Security ADs there will ideally be one who is knowledgeable about each of the following security protocols: PKIX, IPsec, TLS, SASL, GSS-API, EAP, CMS, and S/MIME. Ideally at least one AD should be knowledgeable about web security, and threat and policy management.

The Security Area intersects with all other IETF Areas, and the Security ADs are expected to read and understand the security implications of documents produced by all IETF Areas. Security ADs become personally involved and coordinate the involvement of other security experts in the work of other Areas. Broad knowledge of IETF areas and technologies and the ability to assimilate new information quickly are imperative for a Security AD.

This is the summary of the required expertise for the position Transport AD:

2019 Transport Expertise

Together, the Transport Area Directors are expected to effectively charter, manage and review current and new transport work, including congestion signaling and reporting, congestion control for unresponsive flows and interactive real time media, experimentation with congestion control schemes developed in the IRTF, Quality of Service (QoS, including Differentiated Services and reservation signaling), performance metrics for Internet paths, NAT regularization and specification, and storage protocols for the Internet.

Together, the Transport ADs should have a broad understanding of core end-to-end transport topics and how transport technologies interact with network-layer technologies and protocols and with various application-layer protocols, but they are not expected to be experts on all or even most of these topics. Rather, they are expected to work well with Transport Area participants who are experts, and to have enough familiarity with the principles involved to exercise their own judgment about what should be done and why.

Having an overall architectural view as well as basic knowledge of security and privacy, encapsulation and tunneling, and higher layer technologies such as web technologies can be of value.

Because Transport Area working groups often have common interests with IRTF research groups, especially ICCRG, MAPRG, and PANRG, familiarity with these research groups is helpful. Having at least one Transport Area AD with some background in the broader research community is also helpful.

Together, the Transport ADs are expected to organize their workload, e.g., document review, email discussions as follow-up of document review, IESG emails, WG management, etc, in such a way that the average workload for each AD is about 15 to 20 hours per week.

Transport ADs manage and recruit volunteers in order to maintain the Transport Area Document Review Triage Team (“TSV triage team”) and the Transport Area Review Team (TSV-ART).The TSV triage team provides support for the ADs by assigning document reviews to TSV-ART, and TSV-ART provides reviews on request and during Last Call that can be used by the Transport ADs as input for their ballot positions. The Transport ADs may delegate any tasks that can be delegated, but the ADs themselves still have ultimate responsibility to ensure that transport considerations are appropriately taken into account during IESG Evaluation.

This is the summary of the required expertise for the position IAOC Member:

The NomCom is responsible for appointing a single individual from the IETF community to serve as a member of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) and as a trustee of the IETF Trust.

IAOC AND TRUST POSITION DESCRIPTION

This note outlines the expertise and duties for a member of the IAOC and the IETF Trust as specified in BCP101. The administrative structure of the IETF is currently being reviewed as part of the IASA 2.0 discussions. Candidates should be aware of the IASA2.0 work and recognize that the term of IAOC appointees may be changed in the resulting structure.

IAOC

IASA and the IAOC are defined in BCP101, and what follows assumes familiarity with those documents (see https://tools.ietf.org/html/bcp101).

To perform its management oversight function, the following qualifications are important:

  • Previous management experience, such as team leader, group director, etc.
  • Previous budget responsibilities. The ability to work with budget and financial terminology, as well as basic knowledge of accounting and auditing practices and regulations, is important for being able to understand the finance discussions.
  • Previous experience in the IETF, and a good understanding of the IETF processes, such as having been a working group chair, IESG or IAB member, is helpful for fulfilling the task of ensuring administration is in keeping with the community's needs.
  • The IAOC benefits from a diversity of viewpoints.
  • Good capacity for delegation is critical. The IAOC is not the body that performs most tasks, and it is bad practice for members to "micro-manage" the staff.

NomCom-appointed members are eligible to be IAOC chair. The IAOC believes that it is important for people appointed by the NomCom to the IAOC to have the capability and interest to serve as IAOC chair or IETF Trust chair at some time during their IAOC (or Trust) term.

The IAOC may set up subcommittees to undertake its work, and they may include participants who are not members of the IAOC. Information on the committees can be found at: http://iaoc.ietf.org/committees.html

Appointees should expect a time commitment of 5-10 hours per week, with a slightly higher commitment from the chair and occasional bursts of activity for all members. There is no compensation provided to IAOC members, and ordinary travel expenses for members to any meeting (including to the retreat) are also not covered.

Trust

The IETF Trust is also defined by BCP 101, and also by the Trust Agreement as restated (http://trustee.ietf.org/trust-agreement-2014.html). IAOC members are eligible to be Trustees, but those eligible must also individually agree to serve as a Trustee before being seated.

The Trust is mostly a quiet organization, and there is little additional effort beyond the IAOC duties required of individuals who become members. It is worth being aware, however, that the Trustees make up the Trust as individuals. The Internet Society obtains insurance to cover potential liabilities of Trustees.

NomCom-appointed members are eligible to be Trust chair. The Trustees believe that it is important for people appointed by the NomCom to the Trust to have the capability and interest to serve as IAOC chair or IETF Trust chair at some time during their IAOC (or Trust) term.

This is the summary of the required expertise for the position IETF Trust:

Background Information:

The purpose of the Internet Engineering Task Force (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 https://tools.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4371.txt [RFC4371].

For more information see the "Discussion of the IASA 2.0 Changes as They Relate to the IETF Trust https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-00 and Update to the Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-update-00.

Desired Experience:

The Trust is mostly a quiet organization, and being a trustee generally involves little work beyond quarterly online meetings. Trustees ideally should be:

  • Familiar with copyright and trademark law.
  • Familiar with the RFC publication process as described in RFC 6635 and related documents.
  • Familiar with the Trust's copyright licenses and with RFCs 5377 and 5378.
  • Willing to serve multiple terms as a trustee to provide continuity of oversight.