2023-09-13 TSPTF Meeting Notes

Meeting Date & Time

This Task Force meets every Wednesday. There are two meetings to serve different time zones:

  • NA/EU meeting: 08:00-09:00 PT / 15:00-16:00 UTC
  • APAC meeting: 18:00-19:00 PT / 01:00-02:00 UTC

See the Calendar of ToIP Meetings for exact meeting dates, times and Zoom links.

Zoom Meeting Recording

Attendees  

NA/EU:

APAC:

  • NO APAC MEETING due to due to travel of the leads

Agenda Items and Notes (including all relevant links)

TimeAgenda ItemLeadNotes
3 min
  • Start recording
  • Welcome & antitrust notice
  • New member introductions
  • Agenda review
Leads
  • Antitrust Policy Notice: Attendees are reminded to adhere to the meeting agenda and not participate in activities prohibited under antitrust and competition laws. Only members of ToIP who have signed the necessary agreements are permitted to participate in this activity beyond an observer role.
  • New Members:
2 minReview of previous action itemsLeads
  • See the first agenda item below.
10 minsGitHub repo and specification template setup

Kevin reported that he is working on GitHub setup and team management.

The question of what specification template to use is still in discussion. If we intend to use an ISO-friendly template, Kevin can create a repo using that template.

We discussed the pros and cons of that avenue. Note that we (ToIP) remains in control of the specification and future versions.

Judith said she believes there may also be a similar PAS (Publicly Available Specification) process with the IETF.

Viky Manaila pointed out that "ISO acceptance in EU is based on a special agreement", which means that ISO standards are accepted in the EU. So she encouraged that option. She shared the Vienna Agreement between ISO and European Committee for Standardization: https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/single-market/european-standards/standardisation-policy/international-activities_en

Wenjing Chu was in favor of using a format for the specification that will be the final.

ACTION: Judith FleenorDrummond Reed and Wenjing Chu (if available) contact Karla McKenna to learn more about the specifics of the ISO PAS process.

Wenjing asked if Kevin's template would produce a publishable document, and he confirmed it would using GitHub pages.

ACTION: Kevin Griffin and Wenjing Chu will work together to set up the TSP spec repo and template.

30 minsWorking Draft DiscussionWenjing Chu 

Wenjing took us through the start of the Working Draft.

We reviewed the overview section (see screenshot #1 below). Wenjing make two recommendations:

  1. Break out the TSP Routing specification as a separate document (which depends on the base TSP spec).
  2. Break out another future document, tentatively called Trust Spanning Protocol Multi-Party Messages, as part of our future work.

Darrell O'Donnell: "That “Future Work” section can handle the key points we don’t want to lose (e.g. that could paint us into a corner and block multicast)."

Antti Kettunen asked: So do we need to create a clear ‘protocol capabilities’ section that would enlist what will be available at some point of the roadmap?

Wenjing said that was a good suggestion, but would probably work best in a Future Work session.

Sam Smith pointed out there are multiple facets of a multi-party messaging protocol, such as group list management, so it may actually make for more than one specification (or for a more complex specification). Wenjing agreed.

Neil Thomson: "Grouped Unicast -> Future "stuff".

DECISION: We will include a basic multicast protocol spec in our list of additional specifications, but reference a more complex group list management multicast spec as Future Work.

We reviewed the core diagram (see screenshot #2 below).

Neil Thomson asked: "Any particular reason that support system/endpoint system arrows are unidirectional?"

Wenjing agreed that was a good point — it is just a conceptual relationship with supporting systems. So he will remove the arrows.

10 minsEU Digital Markets Act: How does its demand for interoperable secure messaging affect the TSP?Drummond Reed 

See this article from the Electronic Freedom Foundation about the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and its implications for interoperable secure messaging. 

Drummond pointed out that the point of the EFF article is that end-to-end encryption means it is impossible to deliver the promise of the DMA with proprietary protocols or networks. It must be an open standard protocol — the secure messaging equivalent of SMTP or SMS.

And that's why this represents such a tremendous opportunity for us as a task force.

5 mins
  • Review decisions/action items
  • Planning for next meeting 
Leads

Screenshots/Diagrams (numbered for reference in notes above)

#1


#2

#3



Decisions

  • DECISION: We will include a basic multicast protocol spec in our list of additional specifications, but reference a more complex group list management multicast spec as Future Work.

Action Items