Subject: RE: rfc-editor?

From: "Shaw, Robert" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 14:41:50 +0200

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian E Carpenter [mailto:[email-masked]]
>
> Jeff,
> 
> The RFC Editor function is the subject of a contract, paid for and 
> issued by the Internet Society on behalf of the IETF. The IAB, which
> I chaired until 2 weeks ago, by its latest charter "must approve the 
[snip]
> 
> The current contractor is the Information Sciences Institute of the
> University of Southern California, where the late Jon Postel worked.
> 
> There is no individual human acting as RFC Editor; it's a team effort
> at ISI.
> 

Brian,

O.K., help me understand this. ISOC paid ISI a few hundred 
thousand dollars (?) for the RFC-Editor functions (wasn't it really
funding for the entire IANA role?). However, since Joyce Reynolds is 
now listed both as a staff member of ICANN ("Manager of Publications") 
at http://www.icann.org/general/abouticann.htm and "liaison" to 
the RFC editor on the IAB pages at http://www.iab.org/members.html
the ISOC funding seems to have been used/absorbed for ICANN staff?

However, since there is a recent MoU between IETF and ICANN "Concerning 
the Technical Work of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority" at 
http://www.icann.org/general/ietf-icann-mou-01mar00.htm, I'm puzzled
why the scope of this did not include the RFC-Editor function? If the 
the absence is supposed to indicate some IETF independence from 
ICANN, it's certainly not clear this is reality if the IAB RFC-Editor 
liaison contact is working for ICANN.

The above MoU recognizes that the "IANA technical team is now part 
of ICANN" and that the "IAB is chartered to designate the IANA on 
behalf of the IETF". But isn't this agreement only ad hoc recognition 
of reality since the IAB really doesn't have any ability to 
(re)designate the IANA functions? That's because there's this 
strong rumour going around that the US Department of Commerce 
believes it is transferring the IANA functions to ICANN....

Bob
--
Robert Shaw <[email-masked]>
ITU Internet Strategy and Policy Advisor
International Telecommunication Union <http://www.itu.int>
Place des Nations, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland