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Re: LDAPbis Acknowledgement Policy

At 09:56 AM 1/11/01 -0500, Mark C Smith wrote:
>"Kurt D. Zeilenga" wrote:
>> To ensure WG documents appropriately and consistently
>> give credit to WG document editors and authors, prior work
>> document editors and authors, and individuals providing
>> other significant contributions to WG documents, an
>> acknowledge policy should be adopted.  The following
>> policy statement is offered by this co-chair:
>> 
>>   Each WG I-D shall list in the header the name and
>>   organization of the document editor and author(s)
>>   of the WG (revision) document.  An author is an
>>   individual who has made a direct major contribution
>>   to the WG (revision) document.
>
>I assume it is up to the document editor to determine what constitutes a
>"major contribution."

Yes.  It is the document editor who executes the policy
and should apply reasonable discretion.

>For example, technical review of changes by an
>expert could be viewed as a major contribution.

I guess it could be.  I'm more of the school that the
act of reviewing is different than the act of authoring.
However, reviewers do originate work which is included in
the document.  As an editor, I would try to judge whether
this work was 'major' or 'significant' and acknowledge
based upon this judgement. This, of course, is just my view.
There are other valid approaches to applying reasonable
discretion which an editor may take.

>Also, I think it would be useful to ask editors to put the word "Editor"
>after their name in the header, e.g.,

I concur.

>>   The document editor and author(s) of prior work(s)
>>   shall be credited in an Acknowledgement section.
>
>Unless they are already listed in the new document in the header, etc.

I would like to see the first paragraph of the acknowledgement
section of each I-D to state:

        This document is an update of RFC XXXX by John Doe
        and Mark Jones.  RFC XXXX was a product of the IETF
        XXXX Working Group.

The statement should name all the listed editors/authors of
the RFC(s) which is being updated.

Kurt