IETF tree URL registration procedure incomplete

(Conversation redirected to URLREG):

The recent discussion on the '[email protected]' list about the 'tv' URL
makes me believe that the process described in 
draft-ietf-urlreg-procedures-07.txt for IETF tree documents isn't
adequate to insure proper review of new top level URI schemes, and also
that it assumes more editorial control by IESG of Informational
RFCs than is currently documented by RFC 2026.

As Scott Bradner wrote on the ietf list:

> in the 30 years that the RFC series has run it has always been the case
> that an independent person could get an RFC published if the RFC Editor
> frlt it was a contribution to the Internet community - I think we
> have to think very hard if we want to change this.

In the particular case of "URL schemes", the URI working group
in 1994 and the URLREG group in its many years of existance have
relied on the ability of the IESG (and not merely the RFC editor)
to exert some judgement over URL registrations contained in Informational
RFCs.

In some ways, URL schemes bear some resemblance to top level domains
in their role as a root of a naming authority and in the desire of
some organizations to 'own' the 'short name'; the uproar over a private
use of 'tv' without apparent consensus of the TV community would not be
there if the name of the URL scheme were 'directtv-tune:', as 
draft-ietf-urlreg-procedures-07.txt might propose.

The URL registration procedure document has languished for a while;
the lack of an 'approved' process and guidelines has hampered the
discussion.

Larry
-- 
http://www.parc.xerox.com/masinter