Subject: RFP: IETF Mail List Archiving, Web-Browsing & Search Tool

From: IETF Administrative Director <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:42:44 -0700

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) desires an IETF Mail List Archiving, Web-Browsing & Search
Tool that will improve email list archiving and searching. 

The IETF makes heavy use of electronic mail lists to conduct its work.  IETF Participants frequently need to
search the archives of these mail lists, and have asked for improved search capabilities, particularly when the
search needs to cover a large period of time, or cross several lists.  For instance, document editors, shepherds,
working group chairs, and area directors may need to review all discussion of a particular Internet-Draft.  That
discussion may be spread across the working group list, one or more directorate lists, and the IETF general 
list.  Occasionally, work impacts multiple groups, possibly in different areas, and the search must cover 
additional working group lists.  The current tools for performing these searches require several manually
coordinated steps, which are error prone.  It is difficult to obtain a complete local copy of the archive.  Without
such a local copy, searching most working group lists requires brute force effort, possibly aided by web search 
engines.  More advanced search capabilities have been constructed for a limited subset of the available lists and 
are exposed in the "Email Archives Quick Search" section of the main IETF website.  While these tools are of 
great assistance, there is still significant need for improvement.  The current archive mechanism could also be
made more efficient.  The current practices involve duplicate stores for the web and ftp interfaces, which 
impacts storage.  Also, replication is subject to inconsistency.

Bidders may propose customization of an existing product(s), and/or development of the solution.

The RFP can be found at: http://iaoc.ietf.org/rfpsrfis.html 

Proposals must be received via email at [email-masked] no later than July 9, 2012.  All questions/
inquiries must be submitted in writing and must be received no later than June 25, 2012.  Responses to 
questions and inquiries shall be posted online at:  http://iaoc.ietf.org/rfpsrfis.html by June 29, 2012. 

The point of contact regarding this RFP is the IETF Administrative Director, Ray Pelletier, [email-masked].

Ray Pelletier