A new IETF working group has been formed in the General Area. For additional information, please contact the Area Directors or the WG Chairs. Improved Cross-Area Review (icar) --------------------------------- Current Status: Active Working Group Chairs: Joel M Halpern <joel@stevecrocker.com> Mark Allman <mallman@icir.org> General Area Director(s): Harald Alvestrand <harald@alvestrand.no> General Area Advisor: Harald Alvestrand <harald@alvestrand.no> Mailing list: icar@ietf.org Subscription: icar-request@ietf.org Archives : https://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/working-groups/icar/current/maillist.html WG Description: The WG will work out mechanisms for improved cross-functional review within the IETF, addressing the issues identified by the PROBLEM WG. This includes a better community review, as well as more structured pre-IESG review that may be used to improve scalability of the IESG review function. Definitions: o Cross-functional review: document review covering different aspects of Internet technology, including those represented by WGs within different IETF areas. o Community review: document review performed by individual IETF participants and not caused by their responsibilities within the IETF management structure. o Structured review: more formal and role-based document review performed by individuals assuming certain responsibilities (such as by WG chairs, directorate and IESG members.) It is an explicit goal of the WG to come up with mechanisms encouraging early review of the documents while ideas are still in the formation stage. An early review is best for catching architectural problems while they're still relatively easy to solve. In particular, many cross-functional interactions can be spotted and dealt with, thus avoiding many "late surprises". A final review (currently done by the IESG) can catch remaining cross-functional interactions, as well as deal with overall quality issues. The WG will cooperate with others in starting and evaluating experiments with early community and structured reviews. The evaluation of such experiments may be published as Informational RFCs if the group so desires. The WG will also coordinate with other WGs involved in the IETF reform process on proposed changes to the IETF Working Group operations and Standards process if those are considered necessary. WG milestones: FEB 2004: Publish Internet Drafts on improved community and structured reviews SEP 2004: Submit draft on improved community review to the IESG for publication as BCP SEP 2004: Submit draft on improved structured review to the IESG for publication as BCP JAN 2005: Evaluate WG progress and potential; close or recharter