Network Working Group L. Andersson Internet-Draft Acreo AB Expires: January 2, 2006 July 2005 Guidelines for Acting as an IETF Liaison to Another Organization draft-andersson-iab-liaison-guidelines-00.txt Status of this Memo By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she becomes aware will be disclosed, in accordance with Section 6 of BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- Drafts. 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." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on January 2, 2006. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). Abstract Whenever IETF decides to enter into a liaison relationhsip with another organization, e.g. a Standards Development Organization, a consortium, or an industrial forum, a liaison manger is appointed. The procedures used by the IAB to establish and maintain liaison relationships between the IETF and other organizations are described in RFC 4052 [RFC4052]. This document give guidelines on expectations, tasks, responsibilities and mandate of the liaisons managers. Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 1] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 Conventions used in this document The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. IETF liaisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.1. Related documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.2. Written information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.3. A person acting as liaison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.4. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3. Liaison Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.1. Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.2. Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.3. Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3.4. Mandate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.4.1. Speaking for the IETF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5. IANA considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 7.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 7.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 15 Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 2] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 1. Introduction IETF has extensive communication with other organizations on issues telating to the development of standards for the Internet. Part of this is in written form, known as "liaison statements" sent between the organizations. Part is done by appointing a person to be responsible for the relationship with the other organization, a liaison manager. We normally speak of such a person as "the liaison" from the IETF to this other organization. The organizations IETF establish liaison relationships with comes from various categories, such as Standards Developing Organization (SDO), e.g. the ITU-T or IEEE 802, consortium, and industrial forum. Global Grid Forum is an example of the latter. Usually the IETF liaisons are concerned with groups that develop standards and technical specifications, and many types of groups do so. Whenever IETF decides to enter into a liaison relationship a liaison manager is appointed. The procedures used by the IAB to establish and maintain liaison relationships between the IETF and other organizations are described in RFC 4052 [RFC4052]. The role of the liaison manager has become more and important to the IETF. This document therefore, in addition to what is specified in RFC 4052, gives some guidelines for liaison managers and liaison representatives to another organization. Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 3] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 2. IETF liaisons A goal for IETF is to develop standards for the Internet. These standards are intended to make interoperable implementations for the Internet possible. Developing Internet standards is an actvity that makes communication with and agreements between IETF and other organizations necessary. Other organizations may develop standards for other types of networks, applications running over the Internet and/or technologies that the Internet uses. Sometimes the IETF and other organizations consider it mutually beneficial to have certain rules governing such a relationship. The organizations then enter into a "liaison relationship". On a high level it can be said that both sides agree to undertake certain responsibilities towards each other. The most basic liaison responsibility is to communicate information as necessary and to respond to requests for information from organizations participating in the liasion relationship. 2.1. Related documents The IETF liaison process is specified in an number of documents, RFC 4052 specifies how the IAB mamage the IETF liaison relationship, RFC 4053 [rfc4053] specifies how liaison statements should be treated. RFC 3356 [rfc3356] describes the collaboration between the IETF and ITU-T. 2.2. Written information A large amount of information may be exchanged between the IETF and the organizations it has a liaison relationships with. This information is sent in a liaison statement and typically contains plans, new developments and time schedules that one of the parties believe that the other should be aware of. A typical example is that one of the organizations that the IETF has a liasion relationship with needs to reference IETF documents as part of its document publication activity. The liaison statement the IETF receive would then ask us to have an RFC number ready in time. The response IETF sent could either include that RFC number or explain why it is not possible to have it available within the time requested. The requests for quick action on RFCs by other organizations than ITU have not typically come as liaison statements - e.g. from 3GPP/PP2 and OMA, they've come as a monthly-updated list of the document dependencies and dates-required. The liaison manager is expected to follow this and interact and convey the requests via the AD's requests for expedited publication citing the table (or email when needed). Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 4] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 2.3. A person acting as liaison Whenever the IETF enteres in to a liaison relationship with another organization a liaison manager is appointed. In day to day talk we refer to this person "the IETF liaison" to this other organization. This document gives guidelines on expecations, tasks and responsibilities for such a person. All decisions on IETF liaison relationships, e.g. whether we should have a liaison realtionship with a certain organization or not, is the responsibility of the IAB. This is also true for appointing liaison managers or liaison representatives. In some cases, it may be necessary to have more than one person working with the liaison realtionship with a given organization. For example, it may be the case that the technical scope of the liaison relationship is to varied, or that the time committement is more than would be reasonable for a single person. In such cases we might appoint a liaison representative, a person appointed to manage one certain aspect of the liaison relationship between IETF and the other organization. 2.4. Terminology A terminology for managing the IETF relationship procedures are found in RFC 4052, definitons given here is intended to be the delta valid for this document only. Liaison manager - a person appointed to manage an IETF liaison relationship with another organization. Liaison representative - a person appointed to manage a certain (sub-)aspect of an IETF liaison relationship with another organization. Since it is only the scale of the responsibilities, mandate and tesks that is different the rest of this document only explicitly mentioning the liaison managers. Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 5] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 3. Liaison Guidelines Since the liaison relationship is by definition intended to be mutual beneficial, the IETF liaison to another organization must act as a bi-directional communication link between the IETF and the other organization. While this is self evident it, is also evident that since the liasion manager has been appointed by the IETF that there are certain expectations from the IETF. RFC 4052 lists some tasks and expectations on liaison managers, the intention in this document is discuss this in some more detail and at the same time focus more on how to execute the role as liaison manager. 3.1. Expectations There are certain expectations placed on liaison managers appointed by the IETF. Examples of these expectations are listed below. Comptence A person appointed to act as a liaison manager on behalf of the IETF is expected to have a thorough technical knowledge and understanding of the key issues in the subject area. That is, the liaison manager is expected to have a thorough understanding of the stakeholder issues from both organizations. An IETF liaison manager needs to have knowledge of the IETF's consensus process in general and on the consesus work on the key issues for the specific liaison relationship in particular. The technical comptence of the liaision manager is important, but it should be understood the essence of the liaison manager role is giving attention to managing the rules agreed upon. While the liaison manager is managing the liaison relationship, the liasion mananger is not an independent IETF technologist with respect to the topics that are the focus of the liaision relationship. Rather, the liaison manager must represent documented IETF consensus in his or her dealings with the liasied organization. Perspective Liaison relationships are designed for the mutual benefit of the organisations participating in the liasion. As such, swift information flow in both directions is a firm requirement. It is nevertheless expected that an IETF liaison manager in everthing that relates to the subject matter of the liaison relationship promotes the interests of the IETF. A liaison managers needs to approach the Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 6] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 tasks of the liaison relationship wearing an IETF hat. It is NOT the tasks of a liaison manager to promote the interests of the liaised organization within the IETF. Distance When appointing an appropriate person to manage a liasion relationship the IAB needs to take into account any conflicts of interest that the individual being considered might have. IAB will not appoint a person to liaison manger if there is strong conflict of interests. Examples of such conflict of interest includes industry or organization leadership positions in the liaised organizations. Before a person is appointed to manage a liaison relationship he or she will be asked to explicitly state any conflicts of interest. Commitment and opportunity A liaison needs to be committed to and have the opportunity to solve the issues for which the liaison relationship has been created. This also includes having time allocated to spend on the task. Timeliness One key factor when acting as a liaison is to make the IETF aware of the new development in the subject area in a timely fashion. 3.2. Responsibilities The key responsibility of the liaison manager is to make sure that the information flow between the IETF and the liaised organization is as effective as possible. Information brought to the IETF will be used so that the IETF may take decisions and actions based on the best possible information. Information from the IETF is based on IETF consensus. The liaison manager does not develop independent positions different from the IETF consensus, though the liaison manager works with the other organization on ways to ensure that the communication is clear; that the other organization gets it requirements to the IETF, that the IETF consensus is clear. If differences are strong between the IETF and the other organization, the relevant IETF and other organization leadership need to be in touch; the liaison manager needs to facilitate this communication quickly. From a more formal point of view the liaison managers are responsible for a clear and correct communication of the IETF consensus position to the liaised organization. This includes, when specifically Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 7] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 instructed, to carry any messages from the IETF to the peer organization. Generally, these communications "represent the IETF", and therefore due care and consensus must be applied in their construction. The liaison managers are responsible that any relevant information originating from the liaised organization, or other information and comes to the attention of the liaison manager, reaches the correct destination, in a timely and correct fashion, within the IETF. 3.3. Tasks The list below are examples of tasks that a liaison manager could be required to perform. Depending on the nature of liaised organization the task may vary in frequence and relative importance, 1. Attend relevant meetings, mailing lists and conference calls of the liaised organization as needed and report back to the appropriate part of the IETF on any developments that is of interest for the IETF. 2. A liaison manager is encouraged to work through delegation, sometimes this involves holding frequent update meetings with a team of IETFers involved in the liaised organization and other interested parties within the IETF, e.g. working group chairs and ADs. A significant result of of holding such meetings is an increased understanding, and eventually IETF support, for the other organizations goals. 3. Prepare updates as this is requested by the IETF side. The target of these updates (e.g., the IAB, an AD, a WG) will generally be identified upon establishment of the liaison relationship and/or the appointment of the liaison manager. 4. Oversee delivery of liaison statements addressed to the IETF, ensuring that they reach the appropriate destination within the IETF, and ensure that relevant responses from the IETF are created and sent in a timely fashion. 5. Work with the liaised organization to ensure that the IETF's liaison statements are appropriately directed and responded to in a timely fashion. This could e.g. be accomplished by building an informal contact network for exchanging relevant information. 6. Communicate and coordinate with other IETF liaison managers where concerned technical activities of two or more organizations that the IETF has a liaison relationship with overlap. Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 8] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 7. Based on the IETF consensus position be part of preparation of IETF liaison statements. 8. Once the IETF has decided that a liaison statement should be sent the liasion manager should be part of the preparation of the liaison statement. The liaison manager should do this based on the IETF consensus position and the information he or she has about the liaised organisation. 9. Liaison mangers and liaison representaives shall report to the IETF on status of the liaison relationship and keep track of outstanding issues on behalf of the IETF. The frequency of the reports and the recipients of the reports within the IETF will be decide when the liaison relationship is set up and may be changed at any time by an IAB decision. Status report and issue tracking shall be done by means of the IETF liaison managment system." 3.4. Mandate The mandate for IETF liaison managers is strictly limited, it comprises only conveying IETF consensus to the liased organization. In Section 3.3 and in Section 3.2 a number of tasks and responsibilites is listed. There are at least two important aspects of the tasks and responsibilities. Carried out carefully they will supply the IETF with the information need to correctly interact with other organizations. The other, equally important, aspect is that the tasks and responsibilites will help the liaison manager understand the IETF consensus and build a basis on which is possible to execute the mandate. The liaison manager MUST NOT on his or her own initiative send liaison statements to a liaised organization on behalf of IETF, its areas and working groups. Liaison statements are only sent following the process specified in RFC 4052. Liaison statements are only sent on the initiative of the IETF chair, the IAB chair, IETF Area Directors or IETF working group chairs. 3.4.1. Speaking for the IETF IETF does work on the rough consensus basis, which means that the right to speak for the IETF is not in any way delegated. However, the liaison manager has the task to speak for the IETF on the subject matter of the liaison, but only after making sure that the IETF consensus is understood. Some guidelines in understanding the IETF consensus are given above, but the most important aspect is a close and detailed coordination and consultation with the IETF side in the liaison relationship. Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 9] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 4. Security Considerations Because the interaction on protocols with other standards-making organizations often concerns security aspects, though this document does not specify any protocol or "bits on the wire", getting the liaison manager role right does improve the development of secure protocols for the Internet. Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 10] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 5. IANA considerations There are no requests to the IANA herein. Note that the liaison manager very often has to understand and bridge questions regarding IETF namespace. Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 11] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 6. Acknowledgements This document was developed as part of a conversation regarding the requirements on IETF liaison managers and representatives. Several IAB memebers have significantly contributed to the document. Also, the document has been improved thanks to suggestions and review from Allison Mankin, Dave Meyer and Leslie Daigle. Members of the IAB at the time of approval of this document were: Bernard Aboba Loa Andersson Brian Carpenter Leslie Daigle Patrik Falstrom Bob Hinden Kurtis Lindqvist David Meyer Pekka Nikander Eric Rescorla Pete Resnick Jonathan Rosenberg Lixia Zhang Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 12] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 7. References 7.1. Normative References [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC4052] Daigle, L. and Internet Architecture Board, "IAB Processes for Management of IETF Liaison Relationships", BCP 102, RFC 4052, April 2005. 7.2. Informative References [RFC3356] Fishman, G. and S. Bradner, "Internet Engineering Task Force and International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunications Standardization Sector Collaboration Guidelines", RFC 3356, August 2002. [RFC4053] Trowbridge, S., Bradner, S., and F. Baker, "Procedures for Handling Liaison Statements to and from the IETF", BCP 103, RFC 4053, April 2005. Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 13] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 Author's Address Loa Andersson Acreo AB Email: loa@pi.se Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 14] Internet-Draft Liaison July 2005 Intellectual Property Statement The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be found in BCP 78 and BCP 79. Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at http://www.ietf.org/ipr. The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at ietf-ipr@ietf.org. Disclaimer of Validity This document and the information contained herein are provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights. Acknowledgment Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Andersson Expires January 2, 2006 [Page 15]