Colleagues, August 11, 2024 was the 10th birthday of the DMARC working group. It's good timing that we approach a major milestone for the base document, that being its first formal step, "Publication Requested". (That'll happen when the shepherd write-up appears.) Congratulations! What a long, strange trip it's been.
Ten years is a long time. At IETF 117 last summer, you may recall that I made a presentation which reviewed our nine year existence and urged the WG to consider where it wants to go next and how to wrap up some important open questions. While it's great that the base document has finally gotten this far, there is still a road ahead: AD Evaluation produced some feedback, then once that's resolved there's a two week IETF wide last call that may produce some feedback (including a set of directorate reviews), and then IESG Evaluation may produce some feedback, and each time the WG will need to digest and discuss how it wants to respond and possibly generate a new version. And we may get some collateral inquiries about our experiments and our handling (or not) of indirect mail flows. I am worried by the broad loss of energy and focus that has been evident for some time. We're prone to long bouts of silence, and to distractions and digressions. This is indeed a critical milestone, but the journey isn't over, and I'm concerned for our ultimate (and timely) success. And we still have the two reporting documents to finish. So, for this most auspicious birthday, I've decided to give the WG a (belated) motivational present: An existential crisis. My term as Area Director will end around the middle of the March 2025 meeting in Bangkok, and this is your notice that I will close this WG before then even if it's the last datatracker button I press. I am insistent that I not leave this WG to my successor. It's up to you to organize yourselves and find the energy to complete any work you want to get done by that deadline. Any document that has not gotten through the IESG will die with the working group, which includes the base document if it suffers neglect in the interim. And there is no guarantee that anyone on the next IESG will be willing to sponsor it afterwards. I've no illusions that this is a small task, and you shouldn't either. Editing the base document isn't Todd's full time job. So if you want to see this move forward quickly, ask him if and how you can contribute. The documents are all in github, the feedback is all public. Don't wait for him to do everything; we'll have nobody to blame but ourselves if we fail. I will provide any and all necessary support short of taking up the editor pen or chair position, or anything that conflicts with my AD responsibilities, to help you before then. This is our third and final act. We've got about five months. Let's get it done. -MSK, your friendly neighborhood ART AD
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