Discussion of the IASA 2.0 Changes as They Relate to the IETF Trust
draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-01

Internet Engineering Task Force                                 J. Arkko
Internet-Draft                                                  Ericsson
Intended status: Informational                           October 5, 2018
Expires: April 8, 2019

  Discussion of the IASA 2.0 Changes as They Relate to the IETF Trust
                  draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-01

Abstract

   This document is published to capture the rationale for the changes
   introduced in RFC NNNN (RFC Editor: please replace NNNN with the RFC
   number of [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update]), Update to the Process for
   Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust.

   At the time RFC NNNN was published, IETF administrative structure
   changes ("IASA 2.0") had an impact on the IETF Trust because members
   of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) IAOC, which was
   being phased out, had served as Trustees of the IETF Trust.  This
   document provides background on the past IETF Trust arrangements,
   explains the effect of the rules in the founding documents during the
   transition to the new arrangement, and provides a rationale for the
   update.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   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."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 8, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

Arkko                     Expires April 8, 2019                 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft           IASA 2.0 and IETF Trust            October 2018

   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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Background  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  General Approach  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Changing the Way Trustees Are Selected  . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  Transition  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   8.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Appendix A.  Changes from Previous Versions . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   This document is published to capture the rationale for the changes
   introduced in [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update].

   At the time [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update] was published, IETF
   administrative structure changes ("IASA 2.0") had an impact on the
   IETF Trust [RFC4071] [RFC4371] [I-D.ietf-iasa2-struct].  This is
   because members of the IETF's Internet Administrative Oversight
   Committee (IAOC), which was being phased out, had served as Trustees
   of the IETF Trust.  A minimal change regarding the selection of the
   trustees is implemented by [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update].

   This companion memo provides some background on the details of the
   past IETF Trust arrangements, explains the effect of the rules in the
   founding documents during the transition to the new arrangement, and
   provides a rationale for the update.

Arkko                     Expires April 8, 2019                 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft           IASA 2.0 and IETF Trust            October 2018

2.  Background

   The purpose of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Trust is to
   acquire, hold, maintain, and license certain existing and future
   intellectual property and other property used in connection with the
   administration of the IETF [RFC4371].  The intellectual property is,
   for instance, rights that the IETF contributors grant for text in
   RFCs and Internet-Drafts.  The IETF Trust also manages trademarks
   such as "IETF" and domain names such as "ietf.org".  The IETF Trust
   is also serving the broader Internet community by holding domains and
   trademarks associated with Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
   [RFC7979].

   The IETF Trust is a legal entity, registered in the Commonwealth of
   Virginia [Trust-FD].

   Previously, the members of the IAOC also serve as ex officio Trustees
   of the IETF Trust.  The founding documents specify persons eligible
   to become trustees as having to be then-current members of the IAOC
   [Trust-FD].  The documents also specify that if for any reason there
   are fewer than three individuals serving as Trustees, then the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), or the IESG's successor
   as the leadership of the IETF, shall appoint one or more individuals
   to serve in a temporary capacity as Trustee(s) until eligible persons
   can be found.

   In the previous system there were eight IAOC members.  Two were named
   by the IETF Nominating Committee (NomCom), one by the IESG, one by
   the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and one by the Internet
   Society (ISOC) Board of Trustees.  In addition, there were three ex-
   officio members via their roles as IETF Chair, ISOC CEO, and IAB
   Chair.  In addition, the IETF Administrative Director (IAD) served
   also as one of the trustees.

3.  General Approach

   There were two basic approaches to resolving the issue with the
   trustees, when the IAOC ceased to exist.  One could imagine merging
   all IETF Trust functions in the new IASA structure and under the new
   legal entity.  This memo advocated a second approach where the IETF
   Trust is kept independent.

   The rationale for advocating the second approach is in part to
   minimize changes to the IETF Trust while the IETF's administrative
   structure is undergoing major change.  In addition, the IETF Trust
   and other administrative IETF process are quite different.  While
   very important, the IETF Trust is a low activity entity where changes
   are minimal and gradual, and there are no pressing issues.

Arkko                     Expires April 8, 2019                 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft           IASA 2.0 and IETF Trust            October 2018

4.  Changing the Way Trustees Are Selected

   At the time when the trustees served on both the IETF Trust and the
   IAOC, many of the requirements for naming a particular group of
   people were driven by the IAOC's requirements.  For the IETF Trust in
   the new model, some of those arrangements were able to be rethought,
   both in terms of the number and source of the trustees, as well as
   the desired qualifications and length of terms.

   Several options were possible, of course.  A newly designed naming
   process could have been devised.  The argument here is for a
   relatively limited change, however, largely on the basis of the IETF
   Trust arrangements generally working well, and on the relatively
   modest expected time commitments combined with the need for very
   careful management of the assets.

   As a result, a smaller group of trustees appeared sufficient.

   In addition, the terms for the trustees selected from the IETF
   community could be set to longer than the two year period typical of
   other IETF bodies.

   One could have continued the practice of having the chairs and CEOs
   from IETF, IAB, and Internet Society be trustees as well, but this
   may not be necessary.  In general, the tasks of the IETF Trust are
   well defined, and while there is a need for coordination, it does not
   need to be at the level of chairs or CEOs.

   Given all this, one approach was to have trustees appointed by the
   NomCom, IESG, and ISOC Board of Trustees, or even the new IETF
   Administration LLC legal entity (but the Internet Society is perhaps
   more focused on the broad use of the IETF Trust assets and not merely
   administrative aspects).

   If the same principles would continue to be used as were used in
   previous appointments, then appointments performed by the NomCom
   would need to be confirmed by another entity, which could be, for
   instance, either the IESG or the IAB.

5.  Transition

   When the new entity for IETF Administration LLC was set up, the IAOC
   was expected to be discontinued soon thereafter.  Fortunately, there
   was no pressing need to change all the components at the same time.
   As discussed above (Section 2), the IESG holds the ability to
   continue to name trustees.  And once the updated procedures were in
   place, the IETF Trust has its management nominated in the usual
   manner, and the exceptional IESG process is no longer needed.

Arkko                     Expires April 8, 2019                 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft           IASA 2.0 and IETF Trust            October 2018

6.  Security Considerations

   This memo has no security implications for the Internet.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This memo requests no action from IANA.

8.  Acknowledgements

   The author would like to thank other members of the earlier IASA 2.0
   design team who were Brian Haberman, Eric Rescorla, Jason Livingood,
   Joe Hall, and Leslie Daigle.  The authors would also like to thank
   Alissa Cooper, Ted Hardie, Andrew Sullivan, Brian Carpenter, Lucy
   Lynch, and John Levine for interesting discussions in this problem
   space, and Tero Kivinen, Russ Housley, and Meral Shirazipour for
   careful review.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [RFC4071]  Austein, R., Ed. and B. Wijnen, Ed., "Structure of the
              IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA)", BCP 101,
              RFC 4071, DOI 10.17487/RFC4071, April 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4071>.

   [RFC4371]  Carpenter, B., Ed. and L. Lynch, Ed., "BCP 101 Update for
              IPR Trust", BCP 101, RFC 4371, DOI 10.17487/RFC4371,
              January 2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4371>.

   [RFC7437]  Kucherawy, M., Ed., "IAB, IESG, and IAOC Selection,
              Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the
              Nominating and Recall Committees", BCP 10, RFC 7437,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7437, January 2015, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc7437>.

9.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-iasa2-struct]
              Haberman, B., Hall, J., and J. Livingood, "Record of
              Proposed Structure of the IETF Administrative Support
              Activity (IASA), Version 2.0", draft-ietf-iasa2-struct-06
              (work in progress), September 2018.

Arkko                     Expires April 8, 2019                 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft           IASA 2.0 and IETF Trust            October 2018

   [I-D.ietf-iasa2-trust-update]
              Arkko, J. and T. Hardie, "Update to the Selection of
              Trustees for the IETF Trust", draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-
              update-00 (work in progress), September 2018.

   [RFC5378]  Bradner, S., Ed. and J. Contreras, Ed., "Rights
              Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5378, November 2008, <https://www.rfc-
              editor.org/info/rfc5378>.

   [RFC7979]  Lear, E., Ed. and R. Housley, Ed., "Response to the IANA
              Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) Request
              for Proposals on the IANA Protocol Parameters Registries",
              RFC 7979, DOI 10.17487/RFC7979, August 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7979>.

   [Trust-FD]
              IETF Trust, , "Founding Documents", February 2014
              (https://trustee.ietf.org/founding-documents.html).

Appendix A.  Changes from Previous Versions

   RFC Editor: Please remove this section upon publication.

   The version draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-01.txt includes changes
   relating to last call comments.  The changes are 1) indication of why
   this document is being published 2) updates to references, 3) the
   addition of empty security and IANA consideration sections, 4)
   editorial changes necessary for a document that is also read later,
   and not just used in discussions at this time.

   The version draft-ietf-iasa2-trust-rationale-00.txt includes only
   editorial and language updates.

   The version draft-arkko-iasa2-trust-rationale-00.txt was the initial
   version.

Author's Address

   Jari Arkko
   Ericsson
   Kauniainen  02700
   Finland

   Email: jari.arkko@piuha.net

Arkko                     Expires April 8, 2019                 [Page 6]