Subject: Last Call: Access Control Protocol

From: "Jim Whitehead" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 17:49:44 -0700

*** WORKING GROUP LAST CALL FOR COMMENTS ***

A subgroup of the WebDAV Working Group has been working on the
[email-masked] mailing list to develop a WebDAV Access Control Protocol. As
stated in the abstract of the protocol specification document,
draft-ietf-webdav-acl-06:

   This document specifies a set of methods, headers, and message
   bodies that define Access Control extensions to the WebDAV
   Distributed Authoring Protocol. This protocol permits a client to
   remotely read and modify access control lists that instruct a server
   whether to grant or deny operations upon a resource (such as HTTP
   method invocations) by a given principal.

The access control subgroup now believes that the Access Control Protocol
specification resolves known technical tradeoffs, and reflects the consensus
of the [email-masked] mailing list. The specification has just finished a
very productive last call for comments period on the [email-masked] mailing
list. Since this document is intended to be a work product of the entire
WebDAV working group, it needs to be considered by the main WebDAV working
group mailing list, [email-masked], so it can reflect the rough
consensus of the entire working group.

Since the Access Control Protocol specification is in near-complete form, I
am moving it directly to a (long) Working Group last call for comments
period to solicit review from members of the working group.

This is the final call for comments from the WebDAV working group on the
WebDAV Access Control Protocol, draft-ietf-webdav-acl-06.  This last call
for comments period begins immediately, and ends July 29, 2001, at midnight,
US Pacific time.  This allows over five weeks for review of the
specification.

The latest revision of the WebDAV Access Control Protocol was submitted as
an Internet-Draft today, and should appear in the Internet-Drafts directory
in the next few days. In the meanwhile, it can be accessed at:

Text (this is the normative version)
http://www.webdav.org/acl/protocol/draft-ietf-webdav-acl-06.txt

HTML:
http://www.webdav.org/acl/protocol/draft-ietf-webdav-acl-06.htm

PDF:
http://www.webdav.org/acl/protocol/draft-ietf-webdav-acl-06.pdf

Word (with change tracking active):
http://www.webdav.org/acl/protocol/draft-ietf-webdav-acl-06.doc

At the end of the last call review period, a new draft will be issued.
Depending on the scope of changes introduced between the -06 and -07
versions, there will either be an immediate call for rough consensus (very
few changes), or a second last call review period (significant changes).
Once the document represents the rough consensus of the working group, I
will submit this document to the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)
for their approval.  IESG review involves a (minimum) two week public last
call for comments period.  This IESG-initiated last call period is in
addition to the working group last call period.

This document is intended to be a "Proposed Standard".  Quoting from RFC
2026, "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3":

   The entry-level maturity for the standards track is
   "Proposed Standard". A specific action by the IESG
   is required to move a specification onto the standards
   track at the "Proposed Standard" level.

   A Proposed Standard specification is generally stable,
   has resolved known design choices, is believed to be
   well-understood, has received significant community
   review, and appears to enjoy enough community interest
   to be considered valuable.  However, further experience
   might result in a change or even retraction of the
   specification before it advances.

   Usually, neither implementation nor operational experience
   is required for the designation of a specification as a Proposed
   Standard.  However, such experience is highly desirable, and
   will usually represent a strong argument in favor of a
   Proposed Standard designation.

Many details on the procedures used to develop an IETF standard can be
found in RFC 2026, available at: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2026.txt

If there are any procedural questions or concerns, please do not hesitate
to contact me, or raise an issue on the list.

Notes:

1) Issues raised during the last call period will be resolved individually,
rather than lumped together and dealt with as a whole.

2) If you've been waiting for a "stable" version of the specification before
performing a review, wait no longer.  This is it.  Please review the
specification NOW in order to ensure your input gets included.

- Jim Whitehead
Chair, IETF WebDAV Working Group