Next Steps for 3.0 and major proposed updates
jenn...@iab.com
(cross-posting this email content onto this group forum, for maximum visibility to anyone working on OpenRTB)
Hello,
Thanks to those who participated in this week’s workshop. Calling on all of you in our OpenRTB Working Group community for active participation as we build out security, transparency, authentication, and trust into OpenRTB 3.0. This week we’ve been discussing these new guiding principles, and specific next steps to develop this protocol into version 3.0. See below for main takeaways and new estimated timeline for our work.
Goals for OpenRTB 3.0:
STAT: Secure, Transparent, Authenticated, Trusted
Major New Proposed Technology Updates: (accepting feedback, and your involvement in developing written proposals for each!)
- *Updated Reference Model, and Layer Concept for the programmatic spec:
o Multi-hop transactions are more common place now, with more complexities than we saw in 2011 conception of OpenRTB.
o Billing URL notification is the most widely used notification to declare the winning bid, we will also update win notification/loss notification.
o Layering the protocol to breakout transaction layer (objects, events, macros, etc used to perform functions with domain objects) and domain layer (objects describing subject of the transaction). (More details in the attached ppt.)
o Next step: continued discussion in biweekly working group meetings, and drafting a new proposal together.
- *Authenticated supply chain:
o Lightweight, validation of request/response authenticity, allow third parties to add value/data to the objects, non-repudiation of data
o Call to action: We need a feedback loop on this from you! If you have an interest in security, please contribute to this effort.
o Next step: Opening an Authentication subgroup to work specifically on this proposal development. Email me if you’d like to be included in this subgroup efforts.
- *Decomposed creative payload:
o Unknown javascript payloads, unknown creative, no creative approval – these current issues have security and performance risks.
o New proposed structure for bid response with separation of creative from other bid elements. Also reviewing creative management API opportunities.
o Need input from pub-side and DSP/buy side. More insight on which creative renders and which javascript running. Benefits include performance and anti-ad-blocking.
o Next step: Opening a Decomposed Creative subgroup for work on this proposal development. Email me if you’d like to be included in this subgroup.
The proposed major updates listed above would be backwards-incompatible. We could also include minor feature updates as well, please send any proposals to me, or our OpenRTB-dev forum. Much of our discussion has encouraged moving towards these changes. I am hearing from people that there is a significant business benefit in making these changes, despite the engineering resources that would be required from your teams in order to implement a new version 3.0 once released. Therefore, we are also open to additional feedback on these goals, and on moving to a backwards incompatible protocol.
New Timeline for 3.0 Development:
- March 2017 – Task force launched to determine preferences on protocol buffers (binary avro or protobuf, anyone?), etc. We’ll determine what surveys would be useful in considering to change coding format for OpenRTB. Next steps will be determined at first subgroup meeting. (Email me if you’d like to be on this Coding Format task force.)
- May 2017 – over the next 3 months, authentication subgroup will develop a proposal to be discussed in the at-large group
- May 2017 – over the next 3 months, the decomposed creative subgroup will develop a proposal for the at-large group
- And then, if we do decide to move forward with version 3.0….
- Summer 2017 – release of OpenRTB 3.0 ! (Likely doing a beta release this year, to allow for extended public comments and a long launch that will encourage adoption. Release date and strategy to be determined as we continue work.)
Additional Updates:
- Governance update – IAB Tech Lab now has a commit group that will provide decisions on technology specification/standard development. See the list of new Commit Group members in the attached powerpoint. A huge thank you to this group for forming initial proposals and thought leadership.
- Attached powerpoint presentation from Feb 21 workshop has extended details on discussion points and proposed developments.
- Bi-weekly meeting time will be changing, and a new calendar invite will be sent to you. Stay tuned!
- Launching an OpenRTB Wiki that will consolidate reference pages, use cases, implementation guidance, discussion, and formalized extensions into one place. This should be up and running soon, and will be announced via email and in our working group.
Thanks for reading all the way through! Very much looking forward to working with this awesome community to build towards a more secure, transparent, authenticated, and trusted OpenRTB protocol.
Please email me with subgroups you’d like to join, any feedback on these proposals, or new proposals. I will gather and share comments during biweekly meeting discussion time. We will also do a “status update” on each of the subgroups quickly at the beginning of each biweekly working group meeting.
Thank you,
Jennifer Derke
Director of Product, Programmatic & Data
IAB Tech Lab