Let's make a decision this March

[Greg Vaudreuil <gvaudre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well,

At least I got the discussion talking about the big picture :-)

I would like to reach consensus on the several key points listed below
at the Internet Extensions working group meetings in St Louis, March
11-12.  All interested parties are welcome to attend. If you are not
able to attend, as I expect many are not, I recommend writing a
coherent position "paper" of a page or two stating your preferences in
this area, as well as a reasoned argument in favor of the position.
Send the position notes to the list, stating clearly that the note is
a submission to the discussion in St. Louis.

It is my intention to come to consensus (if possible) at this meeting
on the direction of this effort. Consideration will be given the
statements submitted before the meeting. The decisions will be made
available to non-attendees through the minutes of the meeting which
will be posted to this mailing list.  

Let me frame the question and discussion.

1) Should this effort be pursued in light of the pending deployment of
   X.400?

2) If we do extent the suite of Internet Message protocols to handle
   multi-media and extended character sets, should this be done solely
   in a RFC 822 follow on document, or should it include a backwardly
   compatable upgrade to SMTP?

3) What, if any, will the general framework of the encoding scheme be?

Note:  Point 2 is very narrow.  I consider it a show stopper to make
any change to SMTP which is not backwardly compatable with current
SMTP. 

I look forward to a productive debate.


Greg Vaudreuil

Internet Mail Extensions Chair