





Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                       S. Krishnan
Request for Comments: 6730                                    J. Halpern
Category: Informational                                         Ericsson
ISSN: 2070-1721                                           September 2012


           Requirements for IETF Nominations Committee Tools

Abstract

   This document defines the requirements for a set of tools for use by
   the IETF Nominations Committee.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any
   errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6730.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.








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Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
      1.1. Conventions Used in This Document ..........................2
   2. Meta Requirement ................................................2
   3. Authentication ..................................................3
   4. Security and Access Control .....................................3
   5. Nominations .....................................................4
   6. Accepting and Declining Nominations .............................5
   7. Questionnaires ..................................................6
   8. Feedback Collection .............................................7
   9. Security Considerations .........................................8
   10. Acknowledgements ...............................................8
   12. Normative References ...........................................8
   Appendix A. Example for Key Generation .............................9

1.  Introduction

   The IETF Nominations Committee (NomCom) is a body that selects
   candidates for open IESG, IAB, and IAOC positions following the
   process outlined in [RFC3777].  There is a need for a set of tools to
   aid the NomCom in efficient operation.  This document presents a set
   of requirements for such a tool.

1.1.  Conventions Used in This Document

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

2.  Meta Requirement

   There is an existing tool for supporting NomCom work.  The set of
   requirements specified in this document are mainly enhancement
   requirements or behavioral changes to the existing tool.  Unless
   otherwise stated, all of the current functions of the existing NomCom
   tool need to be supported in the new tool as well.

   o  META-001: The tool MUST provide all the functionality that is
      provided by the current NomCom tool, except in cases where a
      requirement specified in this document overrides a current
      behavior.  The current NomCom tool can be found at the following
      URLs: https://www.ietf.org/group/nomcom/2012/private/ displays the
      NomCom private parts of the tool (Private NomCom tool) and
      https://www.ietf.org/group/nomcom/2012/ displays the community
      member accessible parts of the tool (Public NomCom tool).





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3.  Authentication

   All access to NomCom tools needs to be authenticated.  Users of the
   tools have different privileges based on their role.  The tool needs
   to support at least three levels of access: community member, NomCom
   member, and NomCom chair.  The levels of access are set up by the
   staff of the IETF Secretariat.  It is to be noted that the
   Secretariat staff do not have any access to the tool.  They are
   responsible for administering the server on which the tool runs;
   hence, they set up the access control list for the tool.

   Community member access is applicable to the Public NomCom tool.  The
   NomCom member access and the NomCom chair access are applicable to
   the Private NomCom tool.  NomCom members can use the interfaces on
   the Public NomCom tool in the community member role.  The NomCom
   chair access authentication applies to the private webpage in the
   same fashion as a NomCom member, with the additional ability to
   update the information on both webpages (i.e., what is visible in the
   various forms, the templates for the automatic emails, etc.).

   o  AUTH-001: The tool MUST allow members of the community to log in
      with their existing datatracker.ietf.org credentials.

   o  AUTH-002: The tool MUST allow members of the community to create a
      new login using the datatracker.ietf.org login system.

   o  AUTH-003: The tool MUST allow the secretariat to enter the email
      address of the NomCom chair and to enter a list of email addresses
      of the NomCom members.  The logins associated with these email
      addresses MUST be accorded the respective roles.

4.  Security and Access Control

   All communication between the community and the NomCom and amongst
   the members of the NomCom needs to be stored in an encrypted form.
   This information can only be accessed by members of the NomCom.

   o  SEC-001: The security procedures for the tool MUST be structured
      so that even system administrators do not have routine or
      accidental visibility to any data accumulated by the tool.  This
      data includes all confidential feedback and discussions.

   o  SEC-002: The tool MUST allow the NomCom chair to input a public
      key ("NomCom public key").  This key is generated by the NomCom
      chair independent of the tool, for example, using the procedure
      described in Appendix A.





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   o  SEC-003: All communication sent to the NomCom mailing list MUST be
      encrypted with the NomCom public key before being committed to
      persistent storage.

   o  SEC-004: All community feedback entered using the NomCom tool MUST
      be encrypted with the NomCom public key before being committed to
      persistent storage.

   o  SEC-005: After logging in, the tool MUST allow the NomCom members
      to input a private key ("NomCom private key") that corresponds to
      the NomCom public key.  This key will be used to decrypt the
      feedback/communications that the member is trying to access.  Once
      entered, this key MUST be available for the entire length of the
      session until the user logs out.  This private key MUST NOT be
      stored in plaintext form into persistent storage at any point of
      time.

   o  SEC-006: The tool MUST provide a mechanism for the NomCom Chair to
      destroy all data collected by the NomCom at the end of the
      NomCom's term.  Since the NomCom's term overlaps with that of the
      next year's NomCom, the tool MUST ensure that data collected by
      the next year's NomCom is not affected by this deletion.

5.  Nominations

   After the NomCom is constituted, the NomCom chair issues a call for
   nominations for the open positions.  There are two broad ways in
   which nominees are introduced into the system.  The predominant way
   is that nominations are entered into the system directly by members
   of the community.  The secondary way is that the nominees are entered
   in by members of the NomCom.  The main difference is that members of
   the NomCom can enter nominations that are originated by other
   community members.  In both of the cases, an email address for the
   nominee needs to be entered into the tool.  Please note that NomCom
   members usually use the Public NomCom tool, not the Private NomCom
   tool, to enter their personal nominations and comments.

   o  NOM-001: The tool MUST allow members of the community to enter
      nominations into the Public NomCom tool.

   o  NOM-002: The tool MUST allow members of the NomCom to enter
      nominations into the Private NomCom tool.  The tool MUST allow the
      NomCom member to optionally enter information about the originator
      of the nomination.  The tool MUST record the identity of the
      originator (if known) of the nomination for audit purposes.  Note
      that anonymous nominations are allowed; thus, the actual identity
      of an originator may not always be entered into the tool.




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   o  NOM-003: The tool MUST allow the NomCom chair to specify
      information that is required for the nominations.  This
      information will be entered by the NomCom chair as freeform text
      and will be presented to the individual performing the nomination.

   o  NOM-004: The tool MUST email the nominee after the nomination and
      mention the position(s) that they have been nominated for.  This
      email MUST NOT disclose to the nominee the identity of the person
      who performed the nomination.

   o  NOM-005: The tool MUST allow the content of this email to be
      customized by the NomCom chair.

   o  NOM-006: The tool MUST automatically attach the questionnaires for
      the positions for which the nominee has been nominated to this
      email.

   o  NOM-007: The tool MUST be able to identify duplicate nominations
      of the same person with the same email address and consolidate
      them to point to the same nominee.

   o  NOM-008: In case the same person has been nominated multiple times
      using different email addresses, the tool MUST allow the NomCom
      chair to mark duplicate nominations of the same person and
      consolidate them to point to the same nominee.

   o  NOM-009: The tool MUST allow a communication email address for a
      nominee to be set to one different than the email address with
      which they were nominated.

   o  NOM-010: The tool MUST be able to use the datatracker address book
      system as the basis for requirements NOM-007, NOM-008, and NOM-009
      but MUST allow the NomCom chair to perform manual overrides.

   o  NOM-011: The tool MUST keep track of the accept and decline status
      for the nominees.

6.  Accepting and Declining Nominations

   After receiving the nomination mail, nominees usually respond to
   indicate either that they accept the nomination or that they are
   unwilling to do so.

   o  AD-001: The tool MUST allow nominees to indicate whether they are
      accepting or declining their nomination.  This is preferably done
      by providing distinct hyperlinks in the email that the nominees
      receive.




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   o  AD-002: The tool MUST allow the NomCom chair to select specific
      email responses from the nominees and flag them as having been
      accepted or declined.

   o  AD-003: The tool MUST allow the NomCom chair to manually flag
      nominees as having accepted or declined the nomination without the
      need for any nominee action.

   o  AD-004: The tool MUST allow NomCom members to view the list of all
      nominees along with their accept or decline status.

   o  AD-005: The tool MUST allow NomCom members to view reports of the
      accept or decline status both per nominee as well as per open
      position.

   o  AD-006: The tool MUST be configurable to send reminder mails to
      all nominees who have not responded, either on specified dates or
      at specified intervals.  The contents of the reminder mails MUST
      be customizable by the NomCom chair.

   o  AD-007: The tool MUST be able to generate a summary report
      containing statistics (total/accept/decline/no response)
      concerning nominations by position.

7.  Questionnaires

   Nominees fill in a questionnaire for each position for which they
   accept a nomination.  The completed questionnaire is sent in by email
   to the NomCom mailing list.  If a person has been nominated for
   multiple positions, they may elect to send in a combined
   questionnaire for a subset (or all) of the positions (QR-002) or fill
   in one questionnaire per open position (QR-006).

   o  QR-001: The tool MUST allow the NomCom chair to enter a different
      questionnaire for each open position.

   o  QR-002: The tool MUST allow the NomCom chair to point to email
      responses from the nominees and flag them as questionnaires.

   o  QR-003: The tool MUST allow NomCom members to directly access
      questionnaires completed by nominees.

   o  QR-004: The tool MUST keep track of the questionnaire receipt
      status for the nominees.  The completed questionnaires are
      received as emails to the NomCom mailing list.






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   o  QR-005: Like all other correspondence on the NomCom mailing list,
      the completed questionnaires MUST be encrypted by the NomCom
      public key before being stored.

   o  QR-006: The NomCom chair MUST be able to flag an email as the
      completed questionnaire for a nominee corresponding to a specific
      open position.

   o  QR-007: Once flagged, the questionnaire provided by the nominee
      for a specific position MUST be directly accessible without
      needing to look through all other feedback received for that
      nominee.

8.  Feedback Collection

   Community feedback is very important in the NomCom process.
   Community feedback about nominees is the primary mechanism by which
   NomCom members evaluate nominees.

   o  FB-001: The tool MUST allow members of the community to enter
      feedback about any of the accepting nominees into the Public
      NomCom tool.

   o  FB-002: The tool MUST allow members of the NomCom to enter
      feedback about any of the accepting nominees into the Private
      NomCom tool.  The tool MUST allow the NomCom member to optionally
      enter information about the originator of the feedback.  Note
      that, as in NOM-002, anonymous feedback is allowed; thus, the
      actual identity of an originator may not always be entered into
      the tool.

   o  FB-003: The tool MUST allow NomCom members to view feedback
      entered for each nominee.  The identity of the submitter should
      also be visible with the feedback, unless the submitter wishes to
      be anonymous.

   o  FB-004: The NomCom members MUST be able to enter their interview
      comments as feedback for the nominee being interviewed.

   o  FB-005: All email received on the NomCom mailing list MUST be
      archived.  This includes all correspondence among the NomCom
      members, feedback received over email, as well as completed
      questionnaires.








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   o  FB-006: The tool MUST allow the NomCom chair to manually copy any
      of the archived mails into the feedback section of one or more
      nominees for one or more open positions.  This is required because
      a single email may contain feedback concerning more than one
      nominee or more than one open position.

9.  Security Considerations

   The tool must authenticate all users and must allow logins to be
   classified into three roles: NomCom chair, NomCom member, and
   community member.  All communications to/from the NomCom and among
   members of the NomCom must be stored in an encrypted form.

10.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Russ Housley, Barry Leiba, Brian
   Haberman, Phillip Hallam-Baker, Stewart Bryant, Adrian Farrel,
   Stephen Farrell, Martin Stiemerling, Benoit Claise, Sean Turner,
   Ralph Droms, Mary Barnes, Subramanian Moonesamy, and Menachem Dodge
   for their valuable comments to improve this document.

12.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC3777]  Galvin, J., Ed., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation,
              and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall
              Committees", BCP 10, RFC 3777, June 2004.






















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Appendix A.  Example for Key Generation

   The NomCom chair generates a public/private key pair to be used to
   encrypt NomCom correspondence and feedback.  As an example, the
   NomCom chair can use openssl to generate the key pair using the
   following commands:

   First, the config file for openssl needs to be created with the
   following contents (example for the 2012-2013 NomCom).

[ req ]
distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name
string_mask        = utf8only
x509_extensions    = ss_v3_ca

[ req_distinguished_name ]
commonName           = Common Name (e.g., NomComYY)
commonName_default  = NomCom12

[ ss_v3_ca ]

subjectKeyIdentifier = hash
keyUsage = critical, digitalSignature, keyEncipherment, dataEncipherment
basicConstraints = critical, CA:true
subjectAltName = email:nomcom12@ietf.org
extendedKeyUsage= emailProtection

# modify the email address to match the year.

                      Figure 1: nomcom-config.cnf

   Then the following command needs to be issued in order to generate
   the private key and the certificate.

   $ openssl req -config nomcom-config.cnf -x509 -new -newkey rsa:2048
   -sha256 -days 730 -nodes -keyout privateKey.pem -out nomcom12.cert

   The certificate can then be provided to the tool in order to extract
   the public key.












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Authors' Addresses

   Suresh Krishnan
   Ericsson
   8400 Blvd Decarie
   Town of Mount Royal, Quebec
   Canada

   EMail: suresh.krishnan@ericsson.com


   Joel Halpern
   Ericsson

   EMail: joel.halpern@ericsson.com




































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