Dear colleagues,
In March of 2020 the IAB kicked off the RFC Series Editorial Future Development Program, a program opened to the entire community, with an eye toward reviewing the RFC Editor model found in draft-iab-rfcefdp-rfced-model-05[1]. We are now coming to the conclusion of our work, and the IAB will soon begin its formal consideration, which is governed by RFC 4845[2]. Part of that process includes solicitation of community input.
The program has developed an evolution of the RFC Editor Model and a small change to the charter of the IAB. You can find this evolution in draft-iab-rfcefdp-rfced-model-05 as well as two companion drafts[3,4,5]. This draft brings together many different points of view, as you can see from the mailing list archive[6].
Here are some of the proposed changes that you may wish to know:
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The community oversees the evolution of the series by means of an open working group. Proposed changes that reach rough consensus will be reviewed by an RFC Series Approval Board (RSAB) that consists of the RSCE and people representing the various streams.
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The RFC Editor role is changing to that of a consulting editor (RFC Series Consulting Editor or RSCE). In this model, an expert will provide guidance to the community, the streams, and to the RPC to evolve the series.
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The IAB will no longer manage or oversee the RFC series. The community and the streams will do that. The IAB will continue to be in the appeal path if there are disputes.
There are a lot of things that won't change. The RPC would continue to handle day-to-day functions of the RFC Editor function, and authors should not see any immediate change in terms of how RFCs are published. They continue to be managed through the LLC. We will continue to benefit from the expertise of a professional expert, now the RSCE.
Of course, there's a lot more detail that is specified in the drafts.
This is what will soon be put forth for your comments. In the meantime, even though the formal comment period is not yet open, we invite you to review the model now and bring whatever questions you might have to the program when we meet on Wednesday, November 10th, at 14.30 GMT at the IETF meeting. Of course you can also join the mailing list[7] and contribute your questions and comments there.
On behalf of the program,
Brian and Eliot
[1] https://www.iab.org/activities/programs/rfc-editor-future-development-program/
[2] https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4845.html
[3] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-iab-rfcefdp-rfced-model-05
[4] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-carpenter-rfced-iab-charter-03
[5] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-rosen-rfcefdp-update-2026-01
[6] https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/rfced-future/
[7] https://www.iab.org/mailman/listinfo/rfced-future
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