On Oct 8, 2014, at 10:36 PM, Jari Arkko <jari.arkko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> As someone who has been active in Apps WGs for 20 years (sigh), I would hate to see the area disappear, but that kind of thinking has caused the IETF to hold on to other things much too long. > > I wanted to say that while we are talking about changing organisation, we are *not* abandoning any work. The number of WGs and topics fluctuates, but I cannot think of many more significant standards efforts at the moment than what we are doing with HTTP 2.0 for instance. Apps work is very important, and we continue to be happy to create new working groups and sponsor BOFs. However, we also feel that slightly bigger group of ADs would allow some flexibility to deal with the fluctuations, distribute workload better, etc. So - no disappearance but rather a change in form. Of course. There will periodically be a group of people who want to create a new format for data about people or calendar events, or some possibly-useful way to use HTTP or email, and so on. With this change, they will have to go to an area that is not filled with people who have done that themselves earlier. That's fine: keeping the area around just for that is not a good use of human resources. --Paul Hoffman