input ASCII text files and publish documents as ASCII text files
and PDF files.
o Req-DOCCONVERT-2 - The technical publisher should accept
supplemental files that may contain information such as code,
formal descriptions (e.g., XML, ASN.1) graphics, data files, etc.
Supplemental files may also include enhanced versions of the
document containing graphics or sections not presentable in text
format. Any supplemental files, barring any changes to the IETF
process rules, will be associated with the published IETF
documents, but may not be editable by the publisher.
3.10. Language Translation
Task Description: Some standards organizations require publication of
documents in multiple languages. This translation is the
responsibility of the technical publisher.
Discussion: IETF specifications are published only in English.
Derived Requirements: none
3.11. Publication Status Tracking
Task Description: The technical publisher should have the ability to
provide status information on the status of a document. This may
involve developing a process model or a checklist and providing
information on a document’s state, outstanding issues, and
responsibility tokens. Depending on the need for transparency, this
information may need to be available online and continuously updated.
Discussion: The RFC Editor currently provides status information via
the RFC Editor queue. Each document is attributed a status (e.g.,
AUTH48, RFC-EDITOR, IANA, ISR). Items may stay in the queue for a
long time without changing status. This status tracking information
is not integrated with the IESG tracking tools. Within the IETF, the
Process and Tools (PROTO) team is considering requirements for
marking the token-holder accurately during long waiting periods, and
others are looking into improved notification tools. Requirements on
the IETF technical publisher for improved status integration and
visibility could be met by collaborations with these efforts, by
providing public access to email logs regarding publications, or by
some other proposal.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-STATUSTRK-1 - The IETF technical publisher should make state
information publicly available for each document in the
publication process. It is desirable that this information be
available through a documented interface to facilitate tools
development.
o Req-STATUSTRK-2 - The IETF technical publisher should integrate
its state information with the IETF tools to provide end-to-end
status tracking of documents. For the documents in the IETF
standards process stream, it is expected that documents should be
able to move seamlessly from the IETF standards tracking system
into the technical publication tracking system.
o Req-STATUSTRK-3 - The IETF technical publisher should provide
external visibility of not only the fact that a document is in an
extended waiting period but also the token-holder and
circumstances of the wait.
3.12. Expedited Handling
Task Description: In some cases (such as when the documents are
needed by another standards body), it should be possible for the
approving organization to request expedited publication of a
document. Ideally, this should not skip any of the publication
steps, but allocates it higher priority in the work queue to ensure
earlier publication than normal. Expedited publication should be
used sparingly since as with any priority scheme, overuse will negate
its benefits.
Discussion: The fast-tracking procedure is used to expedite
publication of a document at the request of the IESG. Fast-tracking
is generally employed when an external organization has a looming
publication deadline and a need to reference a document currently in
the RFC Editor’s queue. Having short publication times would likely
reduce the need for fast-tracking.
Since fast-tracking is disruptive to the work flow, it is recommended
that expedited handling be phased out as soon as alternative ways of
achieving timely publication are in place.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-EXPEDITE-1 - The IETF technical publisher should expedite the
processing of specific documents at the request of an appropriate
authority. For the IETF standards process stream, that authority
is the IESG or the IAB.
3.13. Exception Handling
Task Description: It should be possible for various reasons for a
document to be withdrawn from publication or the publication to be
put on hold. Reasons for this could be due to an appeals process,
detection of a serious technical flaw, or determination that the
document is unsuitable for publication.
Discussion: For various reasons, a document can be withdrawn before
publication.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-EXCEPTIONS-1 - The IETF technical publisher should permit
documents to be withdrawn from publication at the direction of an
appropriate authority. For the IETF standards process stream,
that authority is the IESG.
o Req-EXCEPTIONS-2 - The IETF technical publisher should permit
documents to be put on hold awaiting the outcome of an appeal at
the direction of an appropriate authority. For the IETF standards
process stream, that authority is the IESG.
3.14. Notification of Publication
Task Description: The technical publisher should provide a mechanism
for alerting the community at large of the availability of published
documents.
Discussion: The RFC Editor notifies the community of document
publication on the rfc-dist and ietf-announce mailing lists.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-PUBNOTIFY-1 - The IETF technical publisher should announce the
availability of published documents.
3.15. Post-publication Corrections (errata)
Task Description: If corrections are identified after publication,
the technical publisher should be able to publish errata that can be
linked with the original document.
Discussion: The RFC Editor maintains a list of errata. Pointers to
relevant errata are presented as output from the RFC Editor search
engine.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-ERRATA-1 - The IETF technical publisher should maintain errata
for published documents. The process for review, updating, and
approval of errata for IETF documents will be defined by the IETF.
o Req-ERRATA-2 - The IETF technical publisher should provide
information on relevant errata as part of the information
associated with an RFC.
3.16. Indexing: Maintenance of the Catalog
Task Description: The technical publisher normally provides and
maintains the master catalog of publications of that organization.
As the publishers of the organization’s output, the technical
publisher is expected to be the definitive source of publications and
the maintainer of the database of published documents. This also
includes the cataloging and storage of meta-information associated
with documents such as their history, status (e.g., updated,
obsoleted), document categories (e.g., standard, draft standard,
BCP).
Discussion: The RFC Editor maintains the catalog. The RFC Editor is
also responsible for the permanent archival of specifications.
Meta-information associated with an RFC should also be maintained.
Since this is the definitive archive, sufficient security should be
in place to prevent tampering with approved documents.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-INDEX-1 - The IETF technical publisher should maintain the
index of all IETF published documents. It is desirable that the
interface to the index be documented to facilitate tools
development.
o Req-INDEX-2 - The IETF technical publisher should provide the
permanent archive for published documents.
o Req-INDEX-3 - Meta-information associated with a published
document must be stored and updated as its status changes.
o Req-INDEX-4 - The archive must be sufficiently secure to prevent
the modification of published documents by external parties.
o Req-INDEX-5 - The IETF technical publisher should provide the
permanent archive of any source documents associated with a
published specification.
o Req-INDEX-6 - An appropriate authority can indicate to the
publisher that it should change the status of a document (e.g., to
Historical) and this should be reflected in the index. For the
IETF standards process stream, the indicating authority is the
IESG.
3.17. Access to Published Documents
Task Description: The technical publisher should facilitate access to
the documents published. It is assumed that the technical publisher
will provide online tools to search for and find information within
the archive of published documents. These access tools should
facilitate understanding the state of the document (e.g.,
identification of replacement or updated documents, linkage to
pertinent errata).
Discussion: Documents and status may be accessed via the RFC Editor’s
web page.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-PUBACCESS-1 - The IETF technical publisher should provide
search tools for finding and retrieving published documents.
o Req-PUBACCESS-2 - The IETF technical publisher tool should return
relevant meta-information associated with a published document
(e.g., category of document, type of standard (if standards
track), obsoleted by or updated by information, associated
errata).
o Req-PUBACCESS-3 - The IETF technical publication search tools
should be integrated with the IETF search tools. For the IETF
standards process stream, this refers to integration with the
search tools used by the IETF standards process.
3.18. Maintenance of a Vocabulary Document
Task Description: Some standards organizations require the technical
publisher to maintain a publicly available vocabulary document or
database containing common terms and acronyms. The goal is to
provide consistency of terminology between documents.
Discussion: The RFC Editor does not maintain a public document or
database of terms or acronyms.
Derived Requirements: none
3.19. Providing Publication Statistics and Status Reports
Task Description: The technical publisher may be required to
periodically or continuously measure its performance. In many
standards organizations, performance targets are set in terms of
timeliness, throughput, etc.
Discussion: The IETF technical publisher currently provides monthly
statistics on arrivals and completions of documents by category. In
addition, a status report is provided at each IETF meeting. Other
statistics can be used to judge the health of the editing process.
Many of these statistics could be gathered using sampling techniques
to avoid excessive load on the technical publisher.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-STATS-1 - The IETF technical publisher should provide publicly
available monthly statistics on average queue times and documents
processed. The presentation should provide a historical context
to identify trends (see Goal-THROUGHPUT-1). For the IETF
standards process, this should include queue arrivals,
completions, documents in the queue, and the number of documents
in each state at the end of the month.
o Req-STATS-2 - The IETF technical publisher should provide periodic
status reports at the IETF meetings to apprise the community of
its work and performance.
o Req-STATS-3 - The IETF technical publisher should provide publicly
available monthly statistics on the types of editorial corrections
being found during reviews as well as the percentage of
corrections that are rejected by the authors.
o Req-STATS-4 - The IETF technical publisher should provide publicly
available monthly statistics on author-requested changes to
documents under publication. This statistic should also include
changes required by other authorities outside of the technical
publisher empowered to make changes. For the IETF standards
process, the designated authority would be the IESG or its
designees.
3.20. Process and Document Evolution
Task Description: The guidelines and rules for an organization’s
publication output will change over time. New sections will be added
to documents, styles and conventions will change, boilerplate will be
changed, etc. Similarly, the specific processes for publication of a
specification will change. The technical publisher is expected to be
involved in these discussions and accommodate these changes as
required.
Discussion: Over time, the IETF consensus on what should be in a
published document has changed. Processes interfacing with the
publisher have also changed. Such changes are likely to continue in
the future. The RFC Editor has been involved in such discussions and
provided guides, policies, faqs, etc. to document the current
expectations on published documents.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-PROCESSCHG-1 - The IETF technical publisher should participate
in the discussions of changes to author guidelines and publication
process changes.
o Req-PROCESSCHG-2 - The IETF technical publisher should participate
in and support process experiments involving the technical
publication process.
3.21. Tutorial and Help Services
Task Description: The technical publisher may be required to provide
tutorials, mentoring, help desks, online tools, etc. to facilitate
smooth interaction with the technical publisher and to increase the
IETF community’s awareness of document guidelines, procedures, etc.
In many organizations, the publisher maintains a style manual giving
explicit guidance to authors on how to write a specification.
Discussion: Guidelines are provided to the authors on how to write an
RFC as well as occasional tutorial presentations. The RFC Editor
provides a help desk at IETF meetings.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-PUBHELP-1 - The IETF technical publisher should provide and
maintain documentation giving guidance to authors on the layout,
structure, expectations, etc. required to develop documents
suitable for publication. For the IETF standards process stream,
the technical publisher should follow IESG guidance in specifying
documentation guidelines.
o Req-PUBHELP-2 - The IETF technical publisher should provide
tutorials to the IETF community to educate authors on the
processes and expectations of the IETF technical publisher.
o Req-PUBHELP-3 - The IETF technical publisher should provide a
contact email address and correspond as required to progress the
publication work. The publisher should address queries from both
inside and outside of the IETF community.
o Req-PUBHELP-4 - The IETF technical publisher should provide a help
desk at IETF meetings.
3.22. Liaison and Communication Support
Task Description: It is very valuable for the technical publisher of
an organization to have good information and communication about the
work streams that will result in publication streams. In order to
ensure a wide communication channel for the work, the technical
publisher holds a liaison position on the IESG, where there can be
valuable give-and-take about matters concerning the IETF standards
stream.
Discussion: The RFC Editor currently maintains a liaison position
with the IESG. Although not specifically addressed in these
requirements, the RFC Editor also maintains a liaison position toward
the IAB.
Derived Requirements:
o Req-LIAISON-1 - Through a liaison participant, the technical
publisher should take part in meetings and activities as required
in order to be aware of ongoing activities related to the work
streams. For the IETF standards stream the technical publisher
should participate in IESG formal meetings, IESG face-to-face
activities at IETF, and other activities such as retreats.
4. Technical Publisher Performance Goals
Technical publishers are typically measured not only on what they do
but how well they perform the tasks. The expectations in this
section are treated as goals instead of requirements because:
- Achieving a given level of performance is not totally under the
control of the technical publisher. Publication is a process and
the goals are of the process, not just the publisher.
- The actual performance objectives will be set contractually. The
values herein represent values that the IETF community feels are
desirable and reasonable for work progress without consideration
of financial or other factors.
Goals are set forth in the following areas:
1. Publication timeframes
2. Publication throughput
4.1. Publication Timeframes
Goal Description: This is a measure of the time from entry into the
RFC Editor queue until the documents are published. The metrics are
defined in (req-STATS-1).
Discussion: Long publication times create both internal and external
difficulties. Internal difficulties include the migration of authors
to other activities and the accumulation of tempting post-approval
fixes to be added to the document. External difficulties include the
inability of other standards organizations to reference IETF
publications for lack of an RFC number.
Derived Goals:
o Goal-TIMEFRAMES-1 - The consensus of the IETF community is that an
average publication time of under a month is desirable. It is
understood that in some cases there will be delays outside of the
publisher’s control. The actual performance targets and metrics
are expected to be determined as part of the contract negotiation
process.
o Goal-TIMEFRAMES-2 - The consensus of the IETF community is that
the time required for a pre-approval review should be under 10
days. The actual performance targets and metrics are expected to
be determined as part of the contract negotiation process.
4.2. Publication Throughput
Goal Description: The number of documents published during a given
time period is a measure of publisher throughput. Some publishers
also provide the data in terms of pages produced. The counts should
be separated by categories of documents. The metrics are defined in
(req-STATS-1).
Discussion: The RFC Editor currently provides monthly statistics on
the arrival and completion of documents into the RFC queue. This is
sorted by category of document. This provides a measure of the
delays in the publication process.
Derived Goals:
o Goal-THROUGHPUT-1 - Although minor variations are expected, there
should be no long-term growth trend in the length of the
publication queue. The actual performance targets and metrics are
expected to be determined as part of the contract negotiation
process.
5. IETF Implications of Technical Publication Requirements
Requirements on the technical publication process have so far been
stated in terms of requirements on the technical publisher. However,
it must be recognized that many of these requirements have
implications for the processes and tools within the IETF itself. It
is anticipated that these processes will be documented in companion
documents.
The following is a list of potential issues that should be addressed
within the IETF based on the requirements applied to the technical
publisher:
o Pre- vs. Post-approval Editing: If emphasis switches from post-
approval editing to pre-approval editing, then IETF processes must
be adapted to make use of this service. The processes for post-
approval editing can also be streamlined.
o Post-approval Editorial Cleanup: The IETF must define under what
conditions the publisher should be instructed to bypass or
minimize post-approval editing.
o Approval of Post-approval, Pre-publication Technical Corrections:
Since the technical publisher can only accept approved changes, it
must be clear who is allowed to approve technical changes. This
process within the IETF needs to be decided and documented.
o Allocation of Permanent Stable Identifiers: The IETF needs to
clearly identify the naming/numbering schemes and classes of
documents to which those names and numbers apply. Furthermore,
the responsibility for allocation of those names/numbers needs to
be identified.
o Expedited Handling: If publication timelines can be reduced
sufficiently, then expedited handling may no longer be needed.
o Post-publication Corrections: Appropriate processes must be
defined with the IETF to ensure that errata are appropriately
vetted and authorized.
o Indexing: Appropriate processes must be defined within the IETF to
decide and inform the technical publisher of status changes to
published documents as the result of an appeal, legal action, or
some other procedural action.
6. IANA Considerations
Any new requirements that result from this discussion need to be
reviewed by IANA and the IETF to understand to what extent, if any,
the work flow of the documents through IANA is affected.
Interactions with IANA on population of parameter values is discussed
in Section 3.6.
7. Security Considerations
There is a tussle between the sought-for improvements in readability
and the specific language that has often been negotiated carefully
for the security content of IETF documents. As with other text,
extreme caution is needed in modifying any text in the security
considerations. This issue is assumed to have been dealt with under
Section 3.3.
The processes for the publication of documents should prevent the
introduction of unapproved changes (see Section 3.7). Since the IETF
publisher maintains the index of publications, sufficient security
should be in place to prevent these published documents from being
changed by external parties (see Section 3.16)
8. Acknowledgements
Bert Wijnen has provided input on the early copyedit experiment and
made useful comments throughout the document. Leslie Daigle has
contributed strongly to this text. Thanks to Steve Barclay, John
Meredith, Yvette Ho Sang, and Sami Trabulsi for discussions of the
publication practices of ATIS, ETSI, IEEE, and ITU. Other
acknowledgements to date: a discussion on the wg chairs mailing list,
Henning Schulzrinne, and Henrik Levkowetz.
9. Informative References
[RFC2850] Internet Architecture Board and B. Carpenter, "Charter of
the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)", BCP 39, RFC 2850,
May 2000.
Authors’ Addresses
Allison Mankin
Bethesda, MD
USA
Phone: +1 301 728 7199
EMail: mankin@psg.com
URI: http://www.psg.com/~mankin/
Stephen Hayes
Ericsson
3634 Long Prairie Rd.
Ste 108-125
Flower Mound, TX 75022
USA
Phone: +1 469 360 8500
EMail: stephen.hayes@ericsson.com
Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
retain all their rights.
This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Intellectual Property
The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information
on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of