Network Working Group P. Hoffman, Ed. Internet-Draft VPN Consortium Obsoletes: 4677 (if approved) July 19, 2012 Intended status: Informational Expires: January 20, 2013 Publishing the "Tao of the IETF" as a Web Page draft-hoffman-tao-as-web-page-04 Abstract This document describes how the "Tao of the IETF", which was published as a series of RFCs in the past, is instead being published as a web page. It also contains the procedure for publishing and editing that web page. Status of this Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." This Internet-Draft will expire on January 20, 2013. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. Hoffman Expires January 20, 2013 [Page 1] Internet-Draft Tao as Web July 2012 1. Introduction The "Tao of the IETF" ("Tao") describes the inner workings of IETF meetings and Working Groups, discusses organizations related to the IETF, and introduces the standards process. It is not a formal IETF process document but instead an informational overview. The Tao has traditionally been published as an RFC. It has been RFCs 1391, 1539, 1718, 3160; it is currently [RFC4677]. At the time this document is published, there is a strong desire in the IETF community to turn the Tao into a web page that can be edited more easily than an RFC. This document describes how that happens. At the same time, this document formally obsoletes the last version of the Tao that was published as an RFC because that last version, RFC 4677, is no longer be considered the "latest" version of the Tao: the new web page is. This document contains the procedure agreed to by the IESG. The Tao has traditionally been an IETF consensus document, which means that the IESG has had the final say about what the Tao contained before it was sent to the RFC Editor. Thus, the IESG should have final say for what the Tao says when it is a web page. 2. Procedure for Publishing and Editing the Tao The Tao is published at and . The initial content for the Tao web page is based on the last Internet-Draft that was meant to replace RFC 4677. The Tao is edited by one or more people as designated by the IESG. Suggestions for changes to the Tao are discussed on the tao-discuss@ietf.org mailing list. The editor of the Tao decides which proposed changes should be submitted to the IESG for approval. The editor publishes the proposed changes in a version at . The IESG may accept as many of the proposed changes as it wishes. The IESG then submits the changed version to the IETF Secretariat for publication on the IETF web page at the URLs given above. The Tao editor and the IESG should confirm that the page that actually appears on the web site is as intended. Each version of the Tao has a visible timestamp near the beginning of the document. All published versions are archived using URLs of the form , and a list Hoffman Expires January 20, 2013 [Page 2] Internet-Draft Tao as Web July 2012 of the revisions is available at . From time to time, translations of versions of the Tao are made into other languages. These translations do not represent IETF consensus and may be provided on an "as is" basis. The issues of how translations are recorded, made available, cross-referenced to versions of the Tao, and archived are outside the scope of this document and for future study. 3. Proposals for How The Tao Web Page Should Be Developed During the discussion that led to this document, there were many proposals for how the Tao as a web page should be published and edited. Some wanted just a web page; some wanted a web page and periodic snapshots as RFCs; some wanted a wiki that could be easily edited by anyone in the IETF community, with a master editor who would revert bad edits; some wanted a wiki with a more limited group of contributors. The procedure in Section 2 above was the rough consensus of the discussion. 4. IANA Considerations None. 5. Security Considerations The Tao is available over TLS at . 6. Informative References [RFC4677] Hoffman, P. and S. Harris, "The Tao of IETF - A Novice's Guide to the Internet Engineering Task Force", RFC 4677, September 2006. Author's Address Paul Hoffman (editor) VPN Consortium Email: paul.hoffman@vpnc.org Hoffman Expires January 20, 2013 [Page 3]