source: wg_materials/shepherd_writeups/p1-messaging.txt @ 2498

1. Summary

Document: draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging-24
Document Shepherd: Mark Nottingham 
Responsible Area Director: Barry Leiba
Publication Type: Proposed Standard

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for
distributed, collaborative, hypertext information systems. HTTP has been in use
by the World Wide Web global information initiative since 1990. This document
provides an overview of HTTP architecture and its associated terminology,
defines the "http" and "https" Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes,
defines the HTTP/1.1 message syntax and parsing requirements, and describes
general security concerns for implementations.

The Working Group has chosen Proposed Standard because this is a substantial
revision of the text, compared to RFC2616. We anticipate moving to Internet
Standard subsequently.

Note that this document is part of a set, which should be reviewed together:

* draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging
* draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics
* draft-ietf-httpbis-p4-conditional
* draft-ietf-httpbis-p5-range
* draft-ietf-httpbis-p6-cache
* draft-ietf-httpbis-p7-auth
* draft-ietf-httpbis-method-registrations
* draft-ietf-httpbis-authscheme-registrations


2. Review and Consensus

As chartered, this work was very constrained; the WG sought only to clarify
RFC2616, making significant technical changes only where there were
considerably interoperability or security issues. 

While the bulk of the work was done by a core team of editors, it has been
reviewed by a substantial number of implementers, and design issues enjoyed
input from many of them. 

It has been through two Working Group Last Calls, with multiple reviewers each
time. We have also discussed this work with external groups (e.g., the W3C TAG).

We were not able to get consensus on text to add regarding Security
Considerations for interception of unencrypted HTTP traffic.

3. Intellectual Property

There are no IPR disclosures against this document. The authors have confirmed
that they have no direct, personal knowledge of IPR related to this document
that has not been disclosed.

4. Other Points

Downward references:
* RFC1950
* RFC1951 (already in downref registry)
* RFC1952
* "Welch"

New registries created: None.

Updated registries:

* The Transfer Encoding Registry policy is changed from First Come First Served
  to IETF Review, and registration procedures are now defined by this document.
  The policy was changed to assure adequate review.

* The Upgrade Token Registry policy remains at First Come First Served, but
  registration procedures are now defined by this document.