Subject: Missing Experts

From: Timothy Mcsweeney <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2020 15:03:19 -0400 (EDT)

Of the roughly 2,000 protocols listed on the IANA's protocol page:

Requires IETF review:       604

Requires Expert review:    565

Requires specification:      570

Expert unassigned:          297

The earliest missing expert goes back to RFC1505.

How do you get an assignment where there are no experts assigned?

And how likely are these experts to get assigned when it already seems difficult

to get meeting scribes?

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From: Fred Baker <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2020 13:40:56 -0700

Excellent questions. Just a guess, but if I were IANA I might start by contacting the authors; if it came from a working group, I might poll the (possibly defunct) mailing list or working group.

Sent using a machine that autocorrects in interesting ways...

> On Aug 1, 2020, at 12:04 PM, Timothy Mcsweeney <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
>

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From: Benjamin Kaduk <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2020 13:48:54 -0700

The IESG is responsible for assigining experts.
When IANA gets a request for allocation from a registry that currently
lacks an expert (or the assigned expert is non-responsive), IANA asks the
IESG to assign a new expert or experts.
Usually IANA also asks for experts for newly created registries, but it
doesn't always happen right away.

-Ben

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From: Brian E Carpenter <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 2 Aug 2020 09:01:28 +1200

On the other hand, Fred, I for one will not be worrying about the lack of designated experts for an Experimental RFC from 1993 that is clearly irrelevant in 2020. It should perhaps have been obsoleted at some point, but we often just let experiments fade away.

However, there is an answer to the implied question: What happens if there is no designated expert? It's in RFC 8126 (BCP 26):

"5.2.1.  Managing Designated Experts in the IETF

   Designated experts for registries created by the IETF are appointed
   by the IESG, normally upon recommendation by the relevant Area
   Director.  They may be appointed at the time a document creating or
   updating a namespace is approved by the IESG, or subsequently, when
   the first registration request is received."

If there is no expert and a request comes in, the IESG appoints an expert.
Since the IANA team was involved in RFC 8126 and its predecessors, I think
they know this.

Regards
    Brian