WG Action: HyperText Transfer Protocol (http)

The following announcement was posted to the IETF-Announce list, but not to
the WG one.  Basically, you are now a WG.

After some discussion, IESG made one change to the charter and management of
the WG, about which I'm very pleased.   Just as some of the more information
services-oriented WGs have long reported jointly to Applications and User
Services, HTTP will be reporting jointly to Applications and Transport.
This will give us more input from the real experts on transport, scaling
issues, and general impact on the network of various strategies.

I remain your primary contact ("responsible AD") for any IESG administrative
purposes.

    john

--------------- forwarded message ---------

Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 15:08:27 -0500
From: IESG Secretary <iesg-secretary@CNRI.Reston.VA.US>
Subject: WG Action: HyperText Transfer Protocol (http)
To: IETF-Announce: ;

A new working group, jointly chartered by the Applications and
Transport Services Areas of the IETF, has been formed. For more
information, please contact the working group chairs or the Area
Directors.


HyperText Transfer Protocol (http)
----------------------------------
 Chair(s):
     Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org>
     Tim Berners-Lee <timbl@w3.org>

 Applications Area Director(s):
     John Klensin  <Klensin@mail1.reston.mci.net>
     Erik Huizer  <Erik.Huizer@SURFnet.nl>

 Area Advisor
     John Klensin  <Klensin@mail1.reston.mci.net>

 Mailing lists:
     General Discussion:http-wg@cuckoo@hpl.hp.com
     To Subscribe:      http-wg-request@cuckoo.hpl.hp.com
	 In Body:       subscribe http-wg Your Full Name
     Archive:           http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/hypermail

Description of Working Group:

The HTTP working group will work on the specification of the Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is a data access protocol currently run
over TCP and is the basis of the World-Wide Web. The initial work will
be to document existing practice and short-term extensions. Subsequent
work will be to extend and revise the protocol. Directions which have
already been mentioned include:

   improved efficiency,
   extended operations,
   extended negotiation,
   richer metainformation, and
   ties with security protocols.

Note: the HTTP working group will not address HTTP security extensions
as these are expected to be the topic of another working group.

Background information

The initial specification of the HTTP protocol was kept in hypertext
form and a snapshot circulated as an Internet draft between 11/93 and
5/94. A revision of the specification by Berners-Lee, Fielding and
Frystyk Nielsen has been circulated as an Internet draft between 11/94
and 5/95. An overview of the state of the specifications and a
repository of pointers to HTTP resources may be found at

    http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/Overview.html

Once established, the working group will expand and complete that
document to reflect HTTP/1.0 as it has been implemented by World-Wide
Web clients and servers prior to November 1994. The resulting
specification of HTTP/1.0 will be published for review as an
Internet-Draft and, if deemed appropriate, will be submitted to the
IESG for consideration as a Proposed Standard or Informational RFC.

In parallel with the above effort, the working group will consider
enhancements/restrictions to the current practice in order to form a
specification of the HTTP protocol suitable for eventual consideration
as a proposed standard.

Also in parallel with the above efforts, the working group will engage
in defining (or selecting from various definitions) a next-generation
protocol for hypertext transfer (HTTPng).


 Goals and Milestones:

     Done Draft working group charter. Establish mailing list and archive.

     Done Review draft charter for discussion at the Chicago WWWF'94
	  conference. Invest an interim Chair for the working group. Determine
	  writing assignments for first draft of HTTP/1.0 document.

     Done Publish an Internet-Draft on HTTP as reflected by current practice
	  (HTTP/1.0)

     Done Meet at the San Jose IETF as a BOF. Review HTTP/1.0 Internet-Draft
	  and decide whether it should be published as Informational, should be
	  a candidate for further working group development, or should be
	  allowed to expire. Determine writing assignments for first drafts of
	  the HTTP/1.1 or HTTPng documents. Establish charter and submit to
	  IESG

   Feb 95 Revise the Internet-Draft on HTTP/1.0 and, if desired, submit to the
	  IESG for consideration under the category determined at San Jose
	  IETF.

   Feb 95 Publish Internet-Drafts on HTTP/1.1 and HTTPng.

   Apr 95 Final review of HTTP/1.1 draft at the Danvers IETF. Revise HTTP/1.1
	  draft and submit to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard.
	  Review progress on HTTPng.

   Dec 95 Final review of HTTPng draft at the Dallas IETF. Revise HTTPng draft
	  and submit to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard.
	  Retrospective look at the activities of the HTTP WG.

----------- end forwarded message ---------

Received on Sunday, 29 January 1995 08:49:14 UTC