One of the goals of re-engineering the technical publication process is to solve the problems with providing references to external organizations. Outside organizations often want to reference IETF specifications, but are frustrated by their unavailability since they cannot be formally referenced until they exit the RFC queue.
Three approaches have been proposed to address this issue: 1. Expedited handling - moving some critically needed documents to the top of the queue o Current Req-EXPEDITE-1 - The IETF technical publisher shall expedite the processing of specific documents at the request of the IESG. 2. Early allocation of permanent identifiers - this allows outside documents to complete their specifications (populated with the correct references) with the expectation that the document will eventually pop out. o Potential Req-PERMID-2 - The IETF technical publisher should permit early allocation of stable identifiers for or by the IESG to satisfy referencing requirements of external bodies. 3. Tighten the overall publication timelines so there is not a long wait before publication o Potential Req-TIMEFRAMES-1 - The IETF technical publisher should have a goal of an average publication time of no more than 4 weeks and at least 98% of all documents should be published within 8 weeks. Documents held up due to references or due to a protocol action should be excluded from this statistic. I would propose that we focus on approachs 2 & 3 and drop 1. Approach 3 by itself is hard to guarantee (especially with the references loophole). If an identifier can be provided early, with an expectation that the final document will appear within a reasonable time, then I suspect most external organizations will be satisfied. Most standards organizations will accept the risk that the published document could be delayed or possibly never appear. I would also propose to tighten up the requirement of the allocation of stable identifiers from 4 weeks to 1 week and remove the exclusions for references and protocol actions. o Potential Req-TIMEFRAMES-2 - The IETF technical publisher should have a goal of an average stable identifier allocation time of no more than 1 week and at least 98% of documents should have a stable identifier allocated within 2 weeks of approval. Stephen Hayes _______________________________________________ Techspec mailing list [email protected] https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/techspec
