Requirements for IETF Technical Specification Publication BOF (techspec) xxxxxxxx, November x at xxxx-xxxx =============================== CHAIR: Leslie Daigle 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.