CD-ROMs and secure access (was: Re: Community Input Requested on Trustees' Intent to Renounce "IETF Secretariat" Trademark)

[John C Klensin <[e-mail]>]

--On Friday, April 04, 2014 22:47 +0000 John Levine
<[e-mail]> wrote:

>...
> Did the IETF ever distribute CD-ROMS?  Not that I recall, but
> I'm a relative newcomer.

Yes.  Meeting proceedings were distributed in CD-ROM form for
several years (after distribution in paper volumes was
discontinued).  

IIR, at the time physical distribution of CD-ROMs was
discontinued, there was a commitment to make ISO-format images
available for the whole set for a meeting as well as the HTML
pages that are broken up by, chapter categories and then e.g.,
by area and WG.  As far as I can tell from a quick scan of the
archives, that project was never initiated.  Also, while I know
that most people in the community are quite certain that HTTP
access to structured HTML (mixed with text and PDF) files will
be available forever, it may be that having proceedings only in
that form will eventually turn out to be inconsistent with our
supposed commitments to historical preservation.  

That is another part of the "security and the files" discussion:
if one looks at the very long term, it is much easier to have
confidence in availability of materials through methods that do
not require encrypted access using particular encryption
technologies then through those that do.   So a decision to make
information available only via security-protected mechanisms
may, depending on the techniques chosen, imply a somewhat larger
maintenance commitment than access that does not require those
mechanisms.

     john