Internet DRAFT - draft-hoffmann-gendispatch-policy-stakeholders
draft-hoffmann-gendispatch-policy-stakeholders
gendispatch Working Group S. Hoffmann
Internet-Draft M. Blachut
Intended status: InformationalUK Dept. for Science, Innovation & Technology
Expires: 28 September 2023 27 March 2023
Policy experts are IETF stakeholders
draft-hoffmann-gendispatch-policy-stakeholders-00
Abstract
At IETF115 a side meeting on policymaker engagement with the IETF was
held. This meeting identified the significance of the IETF’s work
for wider societal, economic, and political communities, as well as
existing gaps and barriers to engagement for policy experts. This
informational draft provides an overview of the side meeting and
introduces the problem statement and gap analysis of existing
initiatives in this space. It also poses questions we hope to work
through with others in the IETF community regarding how to better
enable policy expert engagement in IETF standardisation, and on how
we can build a culture which better supports technical and policy
experts working together to develop more robust standards.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Policymaker engagement side meeting at IETF 115 . . . . . . . 3
3. Problem statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Identifying solutions and ways forward . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Appendix A. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1. Introduction
The openness of processes is one of the defining characteristics of
the IETF and its work to develop and improve the Internet. The
success of IETF standards is underpinned by the ability of the
community to bring together diverse individuals with a range of
relevant expertise - including stakeholders from industry, academia,
civil society, and government.
Across various parts of the IETF community, and over time, the
challenge of putting this into practice has been noted, for example:
(1) in the IETF mission statement [RFC3935] and the openStand
principles signed up to by the IETF and IAB [OPENSTAND]; (2) the
charter and work of the Education, Mentoring, and Outreach
directorate[EMODIR]; (3) in the Tao of the IETF [TAO]; (4) in
[RFC8890]: The Internet is for the end user; (5) The Human Rights and
Protocol Considerations Research Group in the IRTF[HRPC]; and, (6) in
other groups that participate in and around the IETF, such as The
Public Interest Technology Group[PITG].
These all recognise the wider context of standardisation, and the
value in involving a diverse set of inputs as part of open processes.
The decisions made in the IETF have the potential to create ripple-
effects across the globe. We are increasingly reliant on the
Internet for virtually every facet of life, and many stakeholders are
actively working to increase access to the Internet. The success of
the Internet is built on open standards.
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Multistakeholder approaches help to develop standards in ways that
reflect a balance of various considerations, on the basis of relevant
expertise. Alongside technical expertise in domains like routing,
security, or operations, wider expertise and experience with regard
to the societal, economic, and geopolitical impacts of
standardisation can fruitfully contribute to the IETF’s work.
“Policy experts” - individuals who have expertise in these domains
relevant to public policy - exist across many types of stakeholder
groups, and actively engage in support of the public interest. Taken
broadly, “policy communities” extend far beyond governments. The
best policy approaches to Internet issues are developed through
multistakeholder processes, such as the Internet Governance Forum,
which exemplify the diverse and unique contribution of policy and
technical experts from civil society, academia, industry and
governments.
Policy communities bring a distinct, relevant, and useful perspective
to the IETF’s work, but face a unique set of challenges in
contributing to standards development. On this basis, the IETF
community should consider avenues that better enable policy experts
to engage in IETF processes as productive contributors.
Section 2 summarises a side meeting held on this topic at IETF 115,
Section 3 outlines a problem statement, and Section 4 identifies
ongoing work and initiates discussion on ways forward.
2. Policymaker engagement side meeting at IETF 115
At IETF115 the Internet Society and the UK Government held a side
meeting on policymaker engagement with the IETF, in discussion with
chairs of the IETF, IRTF, and IAB along with other members of the
community.
The session discussed the rationale behind policymaker engagement in
the IETF, including the societal, economic, and geopolitical
implications of IETF standards and of the importance of the
multistakeholder evolution of the Internet built on open standards.
Incorporating policy expertise into the standardisation process helps
create more robust standards for the benefit of all.
Challenges for policy experts wishing to engage in the IETF were
identified, such as difficulties in knowing when to engage in
emerging standards work and how to identify issues with significance
for policy, as well as wider barriers to engagement in the IETF.
These can include difficulty in understanding ways of working, lack
of technical knowledge and where and how to engage effectively.
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Opportunities for policy and technical communities around the IETF to
mutually build a better understanding of technology as well as policy
were noted. This included opportunities to collaborate with
stakeholders such as the Internet Society and the IAB in their
respective roles.
It was noted that what is missing is a clear touchpoint for policy
experts within the IETF space and join-up with standardisation work
and technical experts. Opportunities to learn from existing
initiatives in the IRTF and in other organisations in the wider
Internet governance ecosystem that bring together policy and
technical expertise were flagged, such as HRPC and RIPE NCC’s
roundtable meetings for technology experts and policymakers.
While the session focused primarily on the perspective of
policymakers in governments, the conversation affirmed the valuable
role of policy experts across other stakeholder groups. Other side
meetings were held at IETF 115 which focused on wider connections
between policy issues and IETF standardisation [CDT-A19]. A common
theme in these sessions noted that the IETF already carries out work
with great significance for policy, societal and economic outcomes,
but that there is still more to do in improving ways of working
between policy experts and technical experts.
3. Problem statement
How do we ensure we are benefitting from the contributions of
individuals with policy expertise in the IETF? There are a range of
challenges to be addressed, including: (1) improving communication
between the IETF and policy communities, (2) education and upskilling
of policy experts to meaningfully engage, and (3) building community
and a culture that enables policy and technical experts to work
together.
There are clear barriers to productive contribution of policy
expertise in the IETF. There are factors that motivate work to
mitigate these barriers. One is the IETF’s important contribution to
the ecosystem of global Internet governance through the development
of the Internet’s open standards. There is a need to strengthen the
IETF in this critical role as other standards bodies and actors look
to use different fora to develop and influence Internet protocol
standards, at the risk of undermining the Internet’s openness and
interoperability. Another is the need to better understand the real-
world impact of those standards. Learning from other
multistakeholder processes and better incorporating a wider range of
expertise can help make IETF standards more robust and help identify
global deployment barriers, and can help raise the IETF’s profile and
make the IETF community better connected globally.
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Two big questions still remain for us: (1) How can we better enable
and benefit from the contribution of policy expertise to IETF
standardisation? (2) How can we build a culture and ways of working
which better support technical and policy experts collaborating to
develop more robust standards?
There are a range of initiatives within and around the IETF that are
addressing particular aspects of the above points. Some of these are
venues for considering the intersection of policy and technology,
some of these are mechanisms for improving communication, or bringing
together relevant stakeholders. Below is a non-exhaustive list of
identified workstreams relevant to this problem space, as a starting
point for identifying remaining gaps.
4. Identifying solutions and ways forward
In March 2023 we identified the following groups and initiatives:
(1) HRPC RG: The Human Rights and Protocol Considerations research
group in IRTF has served as a venue to consider a range of policy-
relevant topics related to human rights, and has brought valuable
expertise into the IETF. The group is discussing rechartering as
“Human Rights and Policy Considerations”.
(2) ISOC Policymaker Program [ISOC]: The educational program, co-
located at IETF meetings, serves to train and introduce government
policymakers to Internet standards.
(3) IAB-ISOC coordination group: A new coordination group has been
set up to better facilitate liaison between the IAB and ISOC
[IAB-ISOC]. This is in the context of a longer standing practice of
collaboration.
(4) RASP RG chartering: A new research group in the IRTF is being
chartered to look at Research and Analysis of the Standards Process,
including barriers to participation and engagement [RASPRG].
(5) EMODIR Directorate: The Education, Mentoring, and Outreach
directorate is chartered to increase the diversity and inclusiveness
of the IETF, and oversees a variety of relevant initiatives [EMODIR].
(6) Article 19 and Centre for Democracy and Technology: These civil
society organisations have created guides for engaging with Internet
standardisation, including an almanac of relevant Internet standards
work across the IETF, W3C, ITU, IEEE and other standards bodies
[ARTICLE19], as well as a handbook on how to engage as a public
interest advocate [KNODEL].
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Sharing information to identify further initiatives, and
collaborating to better understand the overlaps and gaps between this
collection of work, will be key to addressing the identified problem
statement.
Addressing this problem space over the long-term will require a range
of activities and contributions from the wider IETF community. It is
expected that part of this work will support existing initiatives,
but new initiatives or ideas may also be needed. For example, it is
not clear that any of the existing initiatives will help create a
clear touchpoint for those with policy expertise and it is unclear
how they bridge the gap between technology and policy experts working
on IETF standardisation.
Building off of what exists (see above), how can we best support this
activity: (1) Is there existing activity that can be expanded to make
clear touchpoints for those with policy expertise and for those
experts to better contribute to IETF standards work through open and
inclusive processes? (2) Are there other relevant initiatives not
listed here we should be following/engaging?
From an initial review of the landscape, a few gaps have been
identified, such as liaisons/communications, technical contributions
from policy experts, and identification of key stages in the
standardisation process for policy engagement. (1) Is there agreement
that diverse expertise including that of policy communities
strengthens the IETF’s standardisation work? (2) Are there other ways
in which the IETF community would benefit from further communication
and collaboration with policy experts? (3) Where is best placed for
us to start discussions on or build clarity around these points?
5. Security Considerations
This document has no security considerations.
6. IANA Considerations
This document has no IANA actions.
7. Informative References
[ARTICLE19]
19, A., "Internet Standards Almanac", 2023,
<https://almanac.article19.org/>.
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[CDT-A19] "Center for Democracy & Technology and Article 19,
Connecting Internet protocols and standards with policy",
2022, <https://cdt.org/event/cdt-and-article-19-
connecting-internet-protocols-and-standards-with-policy/>.
[EMODIR] "Education, Mentoring, and Outreach Directorate", 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/emodir/about/>.
[HRPC] "Human Rights and Protocol Considerations Research Group",
2023, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/rg/hrpc/about/>.
[IAB-ISOC] "IAB-ISOC coordination group", 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/iabasg/iabisoc/about>.
[ISOC] "Internet Society Policymakers Program", 2023,
<https://www.internetsociety.org/policy-programs/
policymakers-program-to-ietf/>.
[KNODEL] Knodel, M., Salazar, J., and M. Ansari, "A Guide to the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for Public Interest
Advocates", 2023, <https://cdt.org/wp-
content/uploads/2023/02/Art19-Guide-to-the-IETF-
2023-03-21.pdf>.
[OPENSTAND]
"OpenStand principles", 2017,
<https://open-stand.org/about-us/principles/>.
[PITG] "Public Interest Technology Group", n.d.,
<https://pitg.gitlab.io/>.
[RASPRG] "Research and Analysis of Standard-Setting Processes
Proposed Research Group", 2023,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/rg/rasprg/about/>.
[RFC3935] Alvestrand, H., "A Mission Statement for the IETF",
BCP 95, RFC 3935, DOI 10.17487/RFC3935, October 2004,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3935>.
[RFC8890] Nottingham, M., "The Internet is for End Users", RFC 8890,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8890, August 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8890>.
[TAO] "Tao of the IETF", 2023, <https://www.ietf.org/tao.html>.
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Appendix A. Acknowledgments
Thanks to Olaf Kolkman for his review of this draft.
Many discussions influenced this draft, including with the
participants of the IETF 115 side meeting.
Authors' Addresses
Stacie Hoffmann
UK Dept. for Science, Innovation & Technology
Email: stacie.hoffmann@dcms.gov.uk
Marek Blachut
UK Dept. for Science, Innovation & Technology
Email: marek.blachut@dcms.gov.uk
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