Subject: [Rfcplusplus] The problem space

From: Brian E Carpenter <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2018 16:17:39 +1200

Hi,

Here are 3 slides attempting to offer an overview of the problem space.
There are some blanks for everybody to fill in on slide 2.

I fear that the problem the BOF proponents are aiming is a small subset
of one part of the space, but it seems to me we have to put it in context.

Regards
   Brian

---

From: Martin Thomson <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2018 16:13:44 +1000

One thing I've learned from the mail on this list is that there are a
lot of problems, not just the one that this BOF was created to
examine.

For the questions you ask here, the question of quality and status for
old RFCs is an issue, certainly.  We might improve the situation with
the addition of better metadata, and I know the IESG are actively
discussing options there, but nothing is concrete.  The challenge
there is the same root problem: metadata is not part of the immutable
record, and is therefore effectively invisible (c.f., STD
designations).  Of course we could decide that this is a lost cause
and rather continue to provide new, relevant publications; including
updates to old RFCs (as is happening with TCP now).  That way we
safeguard the quality of those publications with the constantly
fine-tuned processes we use in producing those updates.  That
compounds some problems, leading to questions over the role of
immutable specifications and their interaction with constant
refinement of their subjects.

Or we could do as we prefer to do with other maintenance efforts and
keep the scope small and aim to make incremental improvements.

On your scale the problem this group was formed to look at is small,
but it could also be easy - not significantly more complex than the
RFC 7841 update to RFC boilerplate.

I agree that the I* can't decide in isolation, but they have not done
so. Nor do the individuals on those bodies strictly agree that the
stated goal is the right one.  The point of this BOF was to start a
discussion with something concrete as a basis.
On Sat, Jun 23, 2018 at 2:17 PM Brian E Carpenter
<[email-masked]> wrote:
> _______________________________________________
> Rfcplusplus mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/rfcplusplus