Re: [Rfced-future] Welcome to the RFC Editor Future Development Program

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

Eliot, 

Responding to your first note but with your exchange with Andrew
very much in mind...

--On Monday, March 30, 2020 08:51 +0200 Eliot Lear
<lear=[e-mail]> wrote:

>...
> What if anything changes is entirely up to the community, as
> this is being run under an IAB open program, and it will be
> IETF community members who put forward both problem statements
> and proposed solutions.
>...

My hypothesis is close to Andy's, reinforced by the discussions
at IETF 102 and 105 and the reports from the meetings that
brought this Program about:  Very little is broken and the
community (including and in addition to that of active IETF
participants) wants a unified RFC Series with an Independent
Stream, an RSE who is appropriately qualified from a technical
publications management standpoint, and who manages the Series
and sets editorial policy independently and from a high
professional level, consulting the community as appropriate.

If that is the case, then the answer to Andy's question would be
that the only thing that has been broken over the last 18 months
or so is that the IAB and/or RSOC lost track of the
"independent" and "professional" parts and started trying to set
policies and manage the series themselves and, as a possible
unintended consequence, treating the RSE as contractor who could
easily be replaced.

On a slightly different topic, the issues associated with the
2020-2021 Nomcom and what, if any, changes are needed to the
eligibility requirements for the future are still very active on
the IETF and eligibility-discuss lists (in addition to many
other issues, of course).  For those of us who can only put in a
limited number of hours a week on IETF-related work, paying
careful attention to both sets of threads might be nearly
impossible.  Much as I hate to see this process delayed, would
it be sensible to postpone active discussions here for a week or
two in the hope that the other ones will settle down?

best,
   john