Subject: [Slim] Updated proposed charter

From: Randall Gellens <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2015 14:47:33 -0700

Hi everyone,

As revised during today's virtual bar-BoF, here is the updated 
proposed charter:

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SLIM: Selection of Language for Internet Media

Description of Working Group:

A mutually comprehensible language is helpful for human 
communication.  This is true across a range of circumstances and 
environments.  In general, the problem is most acute in situations 
where there is not a clear choice for a single language, such as 
environments lacking contextual or out-of-band information regarding 
the identity of the parties and the language to be used.

The group will address two specific cases that most urgently need a 
technical solution: One problem space is non-real-time communication, 
specifically email for one-to-many or where the set of recipients is 
dynamic or different recipients require different languages; the 
other is real-time communication, specifically emergency calling, 
preferably also useful for other cases where the parties may not know 
each other personally or where one party wishes to accommodate people 
with varying language and media needs.

In the real-time communication case, language and media are 
intrinsically linked, for example, signed languages require a video 
media.

While the two use cases are in different contexts (real time and 
non-real-time), the fundamental goal is the same: to enable selection 
of the best-fit language(s) for a specific situation.  Some of the 
details will also be in common across the cases, e.g., the language 
tags.  Having a single WG address both cases makes it clear that 
these are two aspects of the same basic problem.  A single WG also 
makes it easier to maximize similarities and avoid unnecessary 
fragmentation of the solutions, and facilitates broader review.

The group will produce two documents, one for email, and one for 
real-time communications.

In the email case, the group will determine a MIME based solution 
that enables a single email message to contain multiple language 
versions of the content, with provisions to help clients select a 
best fit version.

In the real-time communication case, the group will produce a 
specification based on draft-gellens-slim-negotiating-human-language, 
enabling negotiation of a human language per media stream.  The 
specification must be suitable for use in emergency communications as 
specified in RFC 6443 and RFC 6881 (which use SIP and SDP to 
negotiate media); it is desirable to also be suitable for use in 
non-emergency real-time communications that share the same call 
set-up and media negotiation protocols.  The mechanism will permit 
the caller's media and language needs and preferences to be matched 
against what the called party is able to provide.  The mechanism will 
permit resources (e.g., translation, relay, media) to be allocated or 
engaged as early as possible in the call set-up or for the call to be 
routed or handled specially (e.g., routed to a resource able to 
provide a needed language and/or media).  Alternatives such as doing 
the negotiation in SIP have been thoroughly explored in the past and 
are out of scope (although the scope might be extended after the SDP 
mechanism has been advanced).

By adding language to the existing media negotiation mechanism as 
used in RFC 6443 and RFC 6881, the group can meet the basic use cases 
with minimal added complexity and be able to enhance later for 
additional use cases as needed.

Goals and Milestones:

October 2015 -- Submit "Multiple Language Content Type" to the IESG 
(based on draft-tomkinson-slim-multilangcontent)

February 2016 -- Submit "Negotiating Human Language in Real-Time 
Communications" to the IESG (based on 
draft-gellens-slim-negotiating-human-language)

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-- 
Randall Gellens
Opinions are personal;    facts are suspect;    I speak for myself only
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Nice guys finish last, but we get to sleep in.  --Evan Davis