Subject: I-D Action:draft-klensin-std-numbers-01.txt

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:45:01 -0800

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.

	Title           : STD Numbers and the IETF Standards Track
	Author(s)       : J. Klensin
	Filename        : draft-klensin-std-numbers-01.txt
	Pages           : 6
	Date            : 2011-02-14

STD numbers are assigned to IETF Standards Track specifications in
order to provide a stable reference even when RFCs are revised and
the underlying documents change.  However, the numbers are only
assigned when the specifications reach Full Standard maturity level,
significantly reducing their utility in the contemporary world in
which few specifications advance beyond the first standardization
maturity level.  For that reason, one recent proposal suggested
eliminating the numbers entirely.  This document argues that stable
references for Standards Track specifications are actually useful and
that the solution is not to abolish the numbers but to change the
point at which they are assigned.

A URL for this Internet-Draft is:
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-klensin-std-numbers-01.txt

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