Every RFC and internet draft that I have seen has a list of authors.
So I'm puzzled with Chris Wellen's suggestion at the last PWG meeting that
IETF policy is to replace the authors names with the single editor
as we progress the Printer MIB from proposed standard to draft standard.
I didn't see this discussion in the New Orleans minutes, so I thought it
should be brought up to the e-mail list.
One of the few perks of working on IETF standards is being listed as
an author. While this may seem as self serving, since I'm listed as
an author of the Printer MIB, I feel that giving credit to work
contributed is important in a professional activity. Authorship
gives recognition to significant contributions and encourages participants
to come forward and donate significant time to preparing specifications.
The following is extracted from the instructions to "Guidelines to Authors
of Internet-Drafts" that I found on the IETF web page:
The document should have an abstract section, containing a two-to-three
paragraph description suitable for referencing, archiving, and
announcing the document. This abstract will be used in the
1id-abstracts.txt index, and in the announcement of the Internet-Draft.
The abstract should follow the ``Status of this Memo'' section. In
addition, the Internet-Draft should contain a section giving name and
contact information (postal mail, voice/fax number and/or e-mail) for
the authors.
Here authors is listed as *plural*, so it would seem that the policy of
multiple authors in the IETF is real.
We also discussed whether the authors of the proposed standard (RFC 1759)
should be carried forward into the draft standard, adding new authors, such
as Randy Turner, the editor, and Binnur Al-Kazily, the PWG chair.
We agreed to drop the authors who had not participated in the refinment of
the document since the proposed standard and add Randy and Binnur. Again,
I don't know what is the usual IETF policy. However, the writing
contributions of Ron Smith, Steve Zilles, and Joel Gyllenskog remain in
the draft standard, as Randy's and Binnur's writing contributions are added.
Commments?
Thanks,
Tom