Hypertext Transfer Protocol Bis (httpbis)
-----------------------------------------

 Charter
 Last Modified: 2010-03-25

 Current Status: Active Working Group

 Chair(s):
     Mark Nottingham  <mnot@pobox.com>

 Applications Area Director(s):
     Alexey Melnikov  <alexey.melnikov@isode.com>
     Peter Saint-Andre  <stpeter@stpeter.im>

 Applications Area Advisor:
     Alexey Melnikov  <alexey.melnikov@isode.com>

 Mailing Lists: 
     General Discussion:ietf-http-wg@w3.org
     To Subscribe:      http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg/
     Archive:           

Description of Working Group:

HTTP is one of the most successful and widely-used protocols on the
Internet today. However, its specification has several editorial
issues. Additionally, after years of implementation and extension,
several ambiguities have become evident, impairing interoperability
and the ability to easily implement and use HTTP.

The working group will refine RFC2616 to:
* Incorporate errata and updates (e.g., references, IANA registries, 
ABNF)
* Fix editorial problems which have led to misunderstandings of the 
specification
* Clarify conformance requirements
* Remove known ambiguities where they affect interoperability
* Clarify existing methods of extensibility
* Remove or deprecate those features that are not widely implemented 
and also unduly affect interoperability
* Where necessary, add implementation advice
* Document the security properties of HTTP and its associated 
echanisms (e.g., Basic and Digest authentication, cookies, TLS) for
common applications

In doing so, it should consider:
* Implementer experience
* Demonstrated use of HTTP
* Impact on existing implementations and deployments

The Working Group must not introduce a new version of HTTP and should 
not add new functionality to HTTP. The WG is not tasked with producing 
new methods, headers, or extension mechanisms, but may introduce new 
protocol elements if necessary as part of revising existing 
functionality which has proven to be problematic

The Working Group's specification deliverables are:
* A document that is suitable to supersede RFC 2616
* A document cataloguing the security properties of HTTP

 Goals and Milestones:

   Done         First HTTP Revision Internet Draft 

   Feb 2008       First HTTP Security Properties Internet Draft 

   Jun 2008       Request Last Call for HTTP Revision 

   Jul 2008       Request Last Call for HTTP Security Properties 

   Oct 2008       Submit HTTP Revision to IESG for consideration as a Draft 
                Standard 

   Oct 2008       Submit HTTP Security Properties to IESG for consideration as 
                Informational 


 Internet-Drafts:

Posted Revised         I-D Title   <Filename>
------ ------- --------------------------------------------
Dec 2007 Mar 2010   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p1-messaging-09.txt>
                HTTP/1.1, part 1: URIs, Connections, and Message Parsing 

Dec 2007 Mar 2010   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-09.txt>
                HTTP/1.1, part 2: Message Semantics 

Dec 2007 Mar 2010   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p3-payload-09.txt>
                HTTP/1.1, part 3: Message Payload and Content Negotiation 

Dec 2007 Mar 2010   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p4-conditional-09.txt>
                HTTP/1.1, part 4: Conditional Requests 

Dec 2007 Mar 2010   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p5-range-09.txt>
                HTTP/1.1, part 5: Range Requests and Partial Responses 

Dec 2007 Mar 2010   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p6-cache-09.txt>
                HTTP/1.1, part 6: Caching 

Dec 2007 Mar 2010   <draft-ietf-httpbis-p7-auth-09.txt>
                HTTP/1.1, part 7: Authentication 

Jan 2008 Mar 2010   <draft-ietf-httpbis-security-properties-05.txt>
                Security Requirements for HTTP 

Aug 2008 Mar 2010   <draft-ietf-httpbis-method-registrations-03.txt>
                Initial Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Method Registrations 

 Request For Comments:

  None to date.