Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                          J. Arkko
Request for Comments: 8715                                      Ericsson
Category: Informational                                    February 2020
ISSN: 2070-1721


 IETF Administrative Support Activity 2.0: Update to the Process for
               Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust

Abstract

  This document captures the rationale for the changes introduced in
  RFC 8714, "Update to the Process for Selection of Trustees for the
  IETF Trust".

  At the time RFC 8714 was published, the changes to the IETF
  Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0 (IASA 2.0) had an impact
  on the IETF Trust because members of the IETF Administrative
  Oversight Committee (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 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 candidates for any level of Internet
  Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 7841.

  Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
  and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
  https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8715.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (c) 2020 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
  (https://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.  Background
  3.  General Approach
  4.  Changing the Way Trustees Are Selected
  5.  Transition
  6.  Security Considerations
  7.  IANA Considerations
  8.  References
    8.1.  Normative References
    8.2.  Informative References
  Acknowledgements
  Author's Address

1.  Introduction

  This document captures the rationale for the changes introduced in
  [RFC8714].

  At the time [RFC8714] was published, the changes to the IETF
  Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0 (IASA 2.0) had an impact
  on the IETF Trust [RFC4071] [RFC4371] [RFC8711].  This is because
  members of the IETF 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 [RFC8714].

  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.

2.  Background

  The purpose of the 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
  [RFC8714].  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
  the 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 served 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 voting members of the IAOC.
  Two were named by the IETF Nominating Committee (NomCom), one by the
  Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), one by the Internet
  Architecture Board (IAB), and one by the Internet Society (ISOC)
  Board of Trustees.  There were three ex officio members via their
  roles as IETF Chair, ISOC CEO, and IAB Chair.  In addition, the IETF
  Administrative Director (IAD) was a non-voting IAOC member who also
  served as one of the Trustees.

3.  General Approach

  There were two basic approaches to resolving the issue with the
  Trustees once the IAOC ceased to exist.  One approach would be to
  merge all IETF Trust functions in the new IASA structure and under
  the new legal entity.  However, this memo advocates 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 processes 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.

4.  Changing the Way Trustees Are Selected

  When the Trustees were serving 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 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 selection
  process could have been devised, but in this document we argue for
  limited change based largely on the fact that a) the IETF Trust
  arrangements worked generally well, b) the expected time commitment
  is expected to be modest, and c) the assets need very careful
  management.

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

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

  One could have continued the practice of having the chairs and CEOs
  from the 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, the IESG, and the ISOC Board of Trustees.  (One might also
  have considered the IETF Administration LLC legal entity instead of
  the Internet Society for this role, but the Internet Society is
  perhaps more suitable for the role given their focus on the broad use
  of the IETF Trust assets and not merely administrative aspects.)

  If the same principles used for previous appointments continued to be
  used, then appointments performed by the NomCom would need to be
  confirmed by another entity.  This could be, for instance, either the
  IESG or the IAB.  The IESG had previously been the confirming body
  for the IAOC, so it has been retained in that role for the Trustees.

5.  Transition

  When the new entity for the 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 of the IAOC
  and its dependent organizations at the same time.  As discussed in
  Section 2, the IESG holds the ability to continue to name Trustees.
  Once the updated procedures were in place, the IETF Trust had its
  management nominated in the usual manner, and the IESG's exception
  process was no longer needed.

6.  Security Considerations

  This memo has no security implications for the Internet.

7.  IANA Considerations

  This document has no IANA actions.

8.  References

8.1.  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>.

8.2.  Informative References

  [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>.

  [RFC8711]  Haberman, B., Hall, J., and J. Livingood, "Structure of
             the IETF Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0",
             BCP 101, RFC 8711, DOI 10.17487/RFC8711, February 2020,
             <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8711>.

  [RFC8714]  Arkko, J. and T. Hardie, "Update to the Process for
             Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust", BCP 101,
             RFC 8714, DOI 10.17487/RFC8714, February 2020,
             <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8714>.

  [Trust-FD] IETF Trust, "Founding Documents",
             <https://trustee.ietf.org/founding-documents.html>.

Acknowledgements

  The author would like to thank other members of the earlier IASA 2.0
  design team: Brian Haberman, Eric Rescorla, Jason Livingood, Joe
  Hall, and Leslie Daigle.  The author 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
  Adrian Farrel, Tero Kivinen, Russ Housley, Benjamin Kaduk, Adam
  Roach, and Meral Shirazipour for careful review.

Author's Address

  Jari Arkko
  Ericsson
  FI-02700 Kauniainen
  Finland

  Email: [email protected]

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