Subject: [Ohttp] John Scudder's No Objection on charter-ietf-ohttp-00-00: (with COMMENT)

From: John Scudder via Datatracker <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2021 07:05:44 -0700

John Scudder has entered the following ballot position for
charter-ietf-ohttp-00-00: No Objection

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The document, along with other ballot positions, can be found here:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/charter-ietf-ohttp/

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COMMENT:
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Regarding Robert’s points, I had naïvely read the charter as being clearly for
"generic oblivious HTTP mechanism to hide clients from servers”, but after
looking at §3.1 (“applicability”) of draft-thomson-http-oblivious-01, I see his
point: it does seem as though the author views OHTTP as being a niche, not a
general, solution. The intended applicability of the work seems worth, at
minimum, making more explicit in the charter, and again seems like it supports
the idea of having a BOF where it can be discussed.

Also, I do think it seems worth considering whether a discovery mechanism
should be in-scope. On the face of it, it seems like a good idea, but maybe
there's some specific reason the proponents have ruled it out.

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Here's my previous Discuss. Having read ekr's rebuttal, I was persuaded enough
by his argument that this is just a special case of a previously-chartered
activity, to withdraw the Block.

Thanks, Éric, for some thought-provoking discussion points. My own reaction is
that although they are interesting points, I don’t think business models have
been seen as within the IETF’s sphere of competence (points 1 and especially
2), nor are politics (points 3 and especially 4). One can of course argue that
no technology exists in a vacuum, and that all technologies have business and
political ramifications, nonetheless I don’t see these as being reasonable
bases for blocking progress on this proposal.

Nonetheless, I do agree that these points, even though wrong ;-) may well be
shared by other members of the community and that as a consequence, it’s
reasonable to hold a BOF.

All that said, I'm personally in favor of the work being progressed, I just
think it's reasonable to make sure community input has been duly considered.

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From: Vittorio Bertola <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2021 10:19:39 +0200 (CEST)

> Il 17/06/2021 16:05 John Scudder via Datatracker <[email-masked]> ha scritto:
> 

I have a general, possibly naive question. Does a niche applicability statement really exempt us from a discussion on how the new mechanism, once standardized, could be used outside of that niche and how it would then impact the Internet in general?

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