Requirements for IETF Technical Specification Publication BOF (techspec)

xxxxxxxx, November x at xxxx-xxxx
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CHAIR:  Leslie Daigle <leslie@thinkingcat.com>

DESCRIPTION:

The work of the IETF is to discuss, develop and disseminate
technical specifications to support the Internet's operation.
An important output of the IETF, then, is published technical
specifications. As the IETF progresses, documentation and review
of its requirements for the process and structure of technical
specification publication is important in order to ensure continued
support for the IETF's work.

The focus of this discussion is on the constructive enumeration and
expression of IETF publication requirements, without
prejudice as to whether the requirements are currently met or not.

As input to this discussion, draft-mankin-techspec-req has been
prepared as a first draft of the requirements, based on the IESG's
experience and perspective in shepherding documents through the
standards process. The intention going forward is to produce a
community-reviewed document (BCP or otherwise, as appropriate).

AGENDA:

1. Overview & Introduction [BoF Chair]
2. Review and discussion of draft-mankin-techspec-req [Allison Mankin]
3. Discussion of any other requirements
4. Update from experiment in early copy editing [Bert Wijnen, RFC Editor]
5. Determination of where from here for requirements documentation.


Out of scope for this BoF
-------------------------

1. The term "technical specification" is used here purposefully
to refer to the technical output of the IETF -- debate about
whether it is expressed as RFCs or ISDs, what "is" an RFC, etc, is out
of scope.

2. Critique of the existing RFC Editor/publication activity is out of
scope, although illustrations of requirements based on RFC experience
will be acceptable as appropriate to the BoF's constructive focus.

3. Discussion of specific publication formats is out of
scope. A goal of this discussion is to cover the full process of
technical specification publication, from beginning-to-
end specification tracking, to errata. To cover all
of that, and to keep the discussion at the level of requirement
(not implementation), the question of publication formats
needs to be out of scope of this discussion.

Once there is community agreement on what the basic requirements are,
there will be a separate discussion of how to map this to existing,
modified, or new publication activities -- thereby addressing the
out of scope points above. To the extent that requirements are
determined to be mechanical in nature, next steps will be carried out
under the auspices of the IASA. For other issues identified, further
community discussions, documentation, and IETF process updates will be
undertaken as appropriate.


Example requirements
--------------------

draft-mankin-techspec-req will clarify, minimally, requirements (if any)
for:

. beginning-to-end specification status tracking
(aligned with IETF status tracking)
. non-author editing -- degree and positioning in the
document review process
. post-approval, pre-publication changes -- acceptable
level (and type) of change requests, who can make
change requests (author, WG chair, AD, other), acceptable
timeframes and sign-offs and/or requirements for (short)
re-iteration of last call.


and similar topics.