Guidelines to Working Group Chair(s) Formation --------- IETF working groups are the primary mechanism for the development of IETF protocols, standards, and recommendations. Before any working group is created, some preliminary work must be done. First, anyone interested in creating an IETF working group must consult with the appropriate IETF Area Director under whose direction the working group would fall, to confirm that creating a working group is appropriate. When determining if creating a working group is appropriate, the Area Director will consider several issues: o Does the working group's activities overlap with those of another working group? If so, it may still be appropriate to create another working group, but this question must be considered carefully. Subdividing efforts often dilutes the available technical expertise. o Are there several people clearly interested in the working group's topic and willing to expend the effort to produce a result (such as an RFC)? There are situations where, while the problem the working group would tackle is interesting, there are not motivated bodies to make a working group effective. Working groups require considerable manpower: a chairman is needed to run meetings, an editor to edit authors' submissions, and authors to actually write text. IETF experience suggests that these roles typically cannot all be handled by one person, four or five active members are typically required. If the necessary manpower is lacking, the person interested in creating the working group might consider actually writing the RFC alone (an activity which usually is feasible), and then submitting it to the IETF for review, rather than creating a working group. o Are the issues that the working group plans to address important? Usually, if the issues are not important, then the necessary manpower will not exist, but the question is worth considering separately. The Area Director, considering the above criterion will decide whether to pursue the formation of the group through the chartering process. The Charter ----------- The formation of a working group requires an approved, written charter. This work statement should in about one page explain the general purpose of the group, delimit its technical scope, enumerate a set of goals and milestones together with timeframes for their completion, and document various administrative points. The content of the charter document is negotiated between a prospective working group chair and the relevant area director. When both the prospective working group chair and the area director are satisifed with the charter text, it can become the basis for forming a working group. The charter document may be similarly renegotiated at any time during the course of the working group's effort to reflect the changing goals of the group. Each charter consists of 5 sections. These sections include both static information about the group, the name, the chairmen, the mailing lists, and the description. The goals and milestones are part of the IETF tracking system, and are designed to allow a degree of project management and support. They change periodically to reflect the current status of the group. o Name: A working group name should be reasonable descriptive. Additionally the group needs to find an 8 character ASCII acronym to reference the group in the IETF directories, mailing lists, and general documents. o Chair(s): The working group may have one or two chair(s) to perform the administrative functions of the group. It is strongly suggested that these persons have internet mail addresses. o Mailing Lists: Most of the work of an IETF working group is conducted on Internet Mail exploder lists. It is required that an IETF working group have a general discussion list. A person needs to be designated the list service postmaster, usually through the list-request alias. An archive should be maintained in a publicly FTPable place. The IETF-archive@cnri.reston.va.us should be added to the mailing list. It is strongly recommended that the mailing list be on an connected IP host, to facilitate use of the SMTP expansion command (EXPN) and to allow FTPaccess to the mail archives. If this is not possible, the archive and membership of the list must be made available by querying the list-request alias. o Description: In 1-2 paragraphs, the focus and intent of the group should be set forth. By reading this section alone, a person should be able to decide whether this group is relevant to their work. Recognising the importance of security and network management in the Internet Architecture, this description of the work of the group must specifically address the impact in terms of security and management. o Goals and Milestones: The working group should after the first meeting be able to enumerate a timetable for work. While this often will change, it is indispensable to potential participants to be able to identify the critical moments for input. This milestone list should be updated periodically to reflect progress. Updated milestones should be submitted along with meeting minutes. Goals should be trackable items. It is strongly recommended that each document the Working Group intends to produce be listed both with a date the first draft is expected to be installed as an Internet Draft, and the date the Working Group intends to send the document to the IESG. Announcement of the Group ------------------------- After a charter is written, it should be submitted to Greg Vaudreuil for recording. He will enter the chartering information into the IETF tracking database and send the charter to the IESG-TECH mailing list for approval and comment. Upon approval of the charter, the Vaudreuil will send the charter to the IETF mailing list. Duties of the Working Group Chair(s) ------------------------------------ The working group chair(s) have wide discretion in the conduct of business. The working group chair(s) have the responsibility to call meetings of the working group, to make reports of the working group activity available for public distribution, and otherwise advance the group toward completion of the goals of the group as listed in the charter. Scheduling of Meetings ---------------------- The working group is expected to meet periodically to discuss and direct future progress. It is expected, but not required that every working group meet at the trimester IETF plenary sessions. Additionally, interim meetings are encouraged by telephone conference, video teleconference, or by actual face to face meetings. Meetings should be publicized as widely as possible, by announcing their time and location on the working group mailing list, the IETF mailing list, and by putting the date on the IETF Calendar by notifying Megan Davies . Meeting Policy -------------- All working group actions should be public, and wide participation should be encouraged. An announcement of the date and time must be sent to the working group mailing list and to Megan Davies a reasonable time before the meeting. After a period of open meetings, the working group chair may hold executive (closed) meetings of the working group consisting of the authors of a particular document and any serious reviewers. This is often necessary to make forward progress preparing a final document. All work conducted in executive session must be made available for review by any interested party. Preparation of Minutes ---------------------- All working group sessions should be reported by making minutes available. It is expected that the working group chair(s) (or a person designated by the working group chairman) submit minutes in ASCII text to Megan Davies after each meeting for publication in the IETF Proceedings, and for posting in the IETF Directories. These minutes should include the agenda for the meeting, an account of the discussion including any decisions made, and a list of attendees. Document Authorship ------------------- The work of an IETF working group usually results in the publication of one or more RFC's. This series of documents are the journal of record for the internet community. A document can be written by an individual in the working group or by the group as a whole with a designated editor. The designated author need not be the group chair(s). Internet Drafts --------------- The Internet Drafts directories are provided to the working groups as a resource to post and disseminate early copies of any and all documents of the working group. This common repository is available to all interested persons to facilitate wide review and comment. It is encouraged that draft documents be posted as soon as they become reasonably stable. Posting after they are in their final form reduces the utility of this resource. See the ``Guidelines to Authors of Internet-Drafts'' for a more complete description and some basic guidelines. Termination of a Working Group ------------------------------ Working groups are typically chartered to accomplish a specific task. After that task is complete, the group will be disbanded. If after a meeting a few times, it becomes evident that the group is unable to complete the work outlined in the charter, the group with it's area director can either 1) recharter to refocus on a smaller task, 2) choose new chair(s), or 3) disband. In those situations where the working group chairperson and the area director disagree about the steps required to refocus the group or the need to disband the group, the IESG will make a determination with input from the area director and the working group chair(s) Sample Charter Internet Thumb Twiddling Protocol Working Group (ittp) Chair(s): Jolly Goodtimer/ABC Jolly_G@abc.washington.dc.us Mailing Lists: General Discussion: ittp@abc.washington.dc.us To Subscribe: ittp-request@abc.washington.dc.us Mail Archive: pub/ittp-archive@abc.washington.dc.us Description of Working Group: The Internet Thumb Twiddling working group is chartered to define a protocol for remotely twiddling thumbs over the Internet. In defining this protocol, several questions must be addressed. The use of remote or virtual thumbs must be more clearly defined. The widespread usage of this protocol may generate large amounts of traffic, and the impact of such traffic needs to be analyze. As with all modern protocols, provisions also must be made for the remote management of the protocol, as well as of the thumbs, and for authenticated twiddling. Other security issues will be considered, but do not seem a priority at this time. However, there might be a need to limit participant embarrassment at being a thumb twiddler, so that additional mechanisms will be needed to prevent disclosure. Goals and Milestones: May 1999 First IETF Meeting: review and approve the charter making any changes deemed necessary. Examine the particular functional needs for a TT protocol and define the scope of the service. Begin work on a framework for the solution, if non-trivial. Assign writing assignments for first draft of document. First draft to be completed. Sep 1999 Review first draft document, determine necessary revisions. Follow up discussion will occur on mailing list. Dec 1999 Make document an Internet Draft. Continue revisions based on comments received at meeting and over e-mail. Mar 2000 Fourth IETF meeting. Review final draft and if OK, give to IESG for publication as RFC. Begin implementations.