Re: adapting IETF in light of github and similar tools

[Jay Daley <[e-mail]>]

> On 21/04/2021, at 5:32 AM, Larry Masinter <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> Git/github could use some adaption to make it work better for IETF.
> I sent in some suggestions back in January. Does anyone think GitHub is
> perfect for IETF use already?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Larry Masinter <[e-mail]> On Behalf Of Larry Masinter
> Sent: Wednesday, January 6, 2021 10:51 AM
> To: [e-mail]
> Subject: RE: Old directions in social media.
> 
> I'd like to see the IETF LLC fund some development of enterprise github.ietf.org to make it work better.
> Just off the top ...

RFC 8875 sets out a plan for how GitHub repositories should be managed and gives the Secretariat and Tools Team various tasks and responsibilities.  As it stands there are two issues with this.  One is the high administrative burden of multiple organisations and repositories.  The second is the limited access to features provided by the free tier, such as the Audit API, which are useful for tools integrations.

As of last week we have an enterprise license for GitHub, which gives the following features:

- access to the Audit API that let’s us pull records of everything for archiving
- allows the creation of unlimited organisations and public repositories under this account.  We can assign whoever we want to manage those without them requiring a license while the Secretariat remains an owner for when an admin change is needed.
- existing organisations can be included under this account if they choose to move to the account
- we are also investigating how it can be used to provide central licensing terms, which will be https://trustee.ietf.org/license-for-open-source-repositories.html <https://trustee.ietf.org/license-for-open-source-repositories.html> to comply with RFC 8875

This basically provides the features the Secretariat and Tools Team need to deliver RFC 8875.  It is also quite cheap as we can use the minimum 10 user license pack, with a not-for-profit discount, provided that we don’t do anything with private repositories, which would change the licensing dramatically.  

> An enterprise license so it could be customized.

Your specific suggestions below should be raised for discussion on tools-discuss.

> Fix the default GFM so it could easily be used to produce xml2rfcv3 With custom diff appropriate.
> Default actions for building PDF, HTML, text views Tie in with DataTracker and appropriate authentication....
> Integrate with email and wg "decisions"
> Fix the bugs in GitHub "discussions" <-> Issues Integration with meeting tools (agendas, minutes) Default "Teams" & roles appropriate for WG work rather than software development Tutorials & written guides for using Git for IETF work  Regular summaries and insights appropriate for document production Some way to subscribe to summaries of actions and topics without watching every action on the repo (maybe a 'significant change' flag that the PR has and must be approved)
> 


Jay

-- 
Jay Daley
IETF Executive Director
[e-mail]