Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                   P. Hoffman, Ed.
Request for Comments: 6722                                VPN Consortium
Obsoletes: 4677                                              August 2012
Category: Informational
ISSN: 2070-1721

Publishing the "Tao of the IETF" as a Web Page

Abstract

   This document describes how the "Tao of the IETF", which has been
   published as a series of RFCs in the past, is instead being published
   as a web page.  It also contains the procedure for publishing and
   editing that web page.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6722.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

1. Introduction

   The "Tao of the IETF" ("Tao") describes the inner workings of IETF
   meetings and Working Groups, discusses organizations related to the
   IETF, and introduces the standards process.  It is not a formal IETF
   process document but instead an informational overview.  The Tao has
   traditionally been published as an RFC.  It has been published as
   RFCs 1391, 1539, 1718, and 3160; it is currently [RFC4677].

   At the time this document is published, there is a strong desire in
   the IETF community to turn the Tao into a web page that can be
   updated more easily.  This document describes that process.  At the
   same time, this document formally obsoletes the last version of the
   Tao that was published as an RFC because the last version, RFC 4677,
   is no longer considered the "latest" version of the Tao: the new web
   page is.

   This document contains the procedure agreed to by the IESG.  The Tao
   has traditionally been an IETF consensus document, which means that
   the IESG has had the final say about what the Tao contained before it
   was sent to the RFC Editor.  Thus, the IESG should have final say
   regarding what the Tao says when it is a web page.

2. Procedure for Publishing and Editing the Tao

   The Tao is published at <http://www.ietf.org/tao.html> and
   <https://www.ietf.org/tao.html>.  The initial content for the Tao web
   page is based on a draft document that was meant to replace RFC 4677.

   The Tao is edited by one or more people as designated by the IESG.
   Suggestions for changes to the Tao are discussed on the
   tao-discuss@ietf.org mailing list.

   The editor of the Tao decides which proposed changes should be
   submitted to the IESG for approval.  The editor publishes the
   proposed changes in a version at
   <http://www.ietf.org/tao-possible-revision.html>.  The IESG may
   accept as many of the proposed changes as it wishes.  The IESG then
   submits the changed version to the IETF Secretariat for publication
   on the IETF web page at the URLs given above.  The Tao editor and the
   IESG should confirm that the page appears on the web site as
   intended.

   Each version of the Tao has a visible timestamp near the beginning of
   the document.  All published versions are archived using URLs of the
   form <http://www.ietf.org/tao-archive/tao-YYYYMMDD.html>, and a list
   of the revisions is available at <http://www.ietf.org/tao-archive/>.

   From time to time, versions of the Tao are translated into other
   languages.  These translations do not represent IETF consensus and
   may be provided on an "as is" basis.  The issues of how translations
   are recorded, made available, cross-referenced to versions of the
   Tao, and archived are outside the scope of this document and are for
   future study.

3. Proposals for How the Tao Web Page Should Be Developed

   During the discussion that led to this document, there were many
   proposals for how the Tao, as a web page, should be published and
   edited.  Some wanted just a web page; some wanted a web page and
   periodic snapshots as RFCs.  Some wanted a wiki that could be easily
   edited by anyone in the IETF community, with a master editor who
   would revert bad edits; some wanted a wiki with a more limited group
   of contributors.  The procedure in Section 2 above was the rough
   consensus of the discussion.

5. Security Considerations

The Tao is available over Transport Layer Security (TLS) at
<https://www.ietf.org/tao.html>.

6. Informative References

   [RFC4677]  Hoffman, P. and S. Harris, "The Tao of IETF - A Novice's
              Guide to the Internet Engineering Task Force", BCP 17,
              RFC 4677, September 2006.

Author's Address

   Paul Hoffman (editor)
   VPN Consortium

   EMail: paul.hoffman@vpnc.org