From mcfadden at cix.org  Mon Sep 24 15:28:44 2001
From: mcfadden at cix.org (Mark McFadden)
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 14:28:44 -0500
Subject: Welcome to ARIN's RFC 2050 Working Group
Message-ID: <004c01c1452f$1ff64fe0$10a8aad8@ROADWARRIOR>

All:

I want to welcome you to the RFC 2050 working group and share a couple
of personal observations as well as tell you what immediate goals the
working group has between now and the Miami.

Some of you know that I've been an advocate for several years of the
re-evaluation and redrafting of RFC 2050.  At ICANN's ASO meeting in
Stockholm earlier this year, I put forward a plan to replace RFC 2050
with a document(s) that adequately reflected the role of the registries
and common, global addressing policy (both v4 and v6).  I reasoned that
RFC 2050 had many things in it that were no longer applicable and was
missing details that were very important to operators, network and
transit providers and consumers of addresses.

The Stockholm meeting led to some very useful discussions about: first,
whether or not a revision to RFC 2050 was even needed; second, if it
were needed, who should do it; and, third, what might a replacement, if
needed, look like.

What's clear is that there needs to be a broad discussion, involving
anyone interested in contributing, of the status of RFC 2050 and how to
move forward.  I've agreed to lead a group of interested people in that
discussion in the ARIN region and I fully expect that similar working
groups will pop up in the other regional registries.  All of the
registries will work to coordinate this effort as we move from
assessment toward a replacement, if needed, for RFC 2050.

When I talked about this at the San Francisco ARIN meeting, Scott
Bradner usefully reminded me that the development of RFC 2050 was an
intricate dance involving many partners.  Careful attention was paid to
avoiding trodding on toes during the dance, but in some cases it
couldn't be helped.  I think that's useful input to the beginning of the
process.  Involving as many people as possible . . . A true bottom up
approach . . . Is what's needed.

I've proposed the following timeline for the Working Group:

  * Provide inventory of issues and policies that RFC 2050 addresses (5
October 2001)
> * RFC 2050 Working Group Open Meeting in Miami (29-30 October 2001)
> * Draft requirements document for rewrite (25 January 2002)
> * Draft process for meeting document requirements (25 January 2002)
> * Begin to draft the components of the replacement (February 2002)
> * Work in coordination with the other Regional Internet Registries
> * Public progress report at ASO general assembly meeting (2Q 2002)

and ARIN staff and leadership have accepted this timeline as a
reasonable place to start.

I'm happy to report that I'm working on the first of the deliverables
and that I'll be posting it to the list early next week.

I hope you participate as actively in the efforts of the working group
as time permits.  

Thanks.

Mark

Mark McFadden
CTO, Communications Director
Commercial Internet eXchange
mcfadden at cix.org
v: (+1)608.240.1560  f: (+1)608.240.1561