The main activity of the IETF is creating and distributing Request For Comment documents, most of which deal with Internet protocols. The IETF RFC process? was very influential on consensus decision making models in other technical fields.

Many RFCs are standards, but not all. "Currently, there are two designations for RFCs that are not meant to be standards: Informational, like the Tao, and Experimental." A third designation, Historical RFC, "is reserved for documents that were on the standards track and have been removed due to lack of current use, or that more recent thinking indicates the technology is actually harmful to the Internet.)" - from the Tao

informational RFC?s

"The role of Informational RFCs is often debated in the IETF. Many people like having them, particularly for specifications that were created outside the IETF but are referenced by IETF documents. They are also useful for specifications that are the precursors for work being done by IETF Working Groups. On the other hand, some people refer to Informational RFCs as "standards" even though the RFCs are not standards, usually to fool the gullible public about something that the person is selling or supporting. When this happens, the debate about Informational RFCs is renewed. "

experimental RFC?s

"Experimental RFCs are for specifications that may be interesting, but for which it is unclear if there will be much interest in implementing them. That is, a specification might solve a problem, but if it is not clear many people think that the problem is important, or think that they will bother fixing the problem with the specification, the specification might be labeled an Experimental RFC. If, later, the specification becomes popular, it can be re- issued as a standards-track RFC. Experimental RFCs are also used to get people to experiment with a technology that looks like it might be standards track material, but for which there are still unanswered questions."

An IETF Working Group? follows well established procedures in BCP 25, aka RFC 2418. The working group chair?s follow these with additional requirements in BCP 11, aka RFC 2028. New chairs are fed standard dog food at every IETF conference.

The "RFC Editor edits, formats, and publishes Internet Draft?s as RFCs," as supervised by the IESG explained above, and runs "one definitive repository for all RFCs.

IESG supervises, ISOC insures

The Internet Engineering Steering Group, "IESG is responsible for technical management of IETF activities and the Internet standards process. It administers the process according to the rules and procedures that have been ratified by the ISOC? Trustees." "ISOC provides insurance coverage for many of the people in the IETF process, and acts as a public relations channel for the times that one of the "I" groups wants to say something to the press." It rarely gets directly involved at other times.

IESG "ratifies or corrects the output from the IETF's Working Groups, gets WGs started and finished, and makes sure that non-WG drafts that are about to become RFCs are correct." It classifies WGs by area, each of which has an Area Director?:

• Applications (APP) - Protocols seen by user programs, such as e-mail and the Web
• General (GEN) - Catch-all for WGs that don't fit in other areas (which is very few)
• Internet (INT) - Different ways of moving IP packets and DNS information
• Operations and Management (OPS) Administration and monitoring
• Routing (RTG) - Getting packets to their destinations
• Security (SEC) - Authentication and privacy
• Transport (TSV) - Special services for special packets
• User Services (USV) - Support for end users and user support organizations

The Efficient Civics Guild extends the APP, TSV, USV and GEN categories in its own protocols.

as a technical contributor

"Read. Review the Internet Drafts in your area of expertise, and comment on them in the Working Groups. Participate in the discussion in a friendly, helpful fashion, with the goal being the best Internet standards possible. Listen much more than you speak.

Implement. Write programs that use the current Internet standards. The standards aren'tworth much unless they are available to Internet users. Implement even the "minor" standards, since they will become less minor if they appear in more software. Report any problems you find with the standards to the appropriate Working Group so that the standard can be clarified in later revisions. One of the oft-quoted tenets of the IETF is "running code wins," so you can help support the standards you want to become more widespread by creating more running code.

Write. Edit or co-author Internet Drafts in your area of expertise. Do this for the benefit of the Internet community, not to get your name (or, even worse, your company's name) on a document. Draft authors are subject to all kinds of technical (and sometimes personal) criticism; receive it with equanimity and use it to improve your draft in order to produce the best and most interoperable standard."

as a corporation

"Share. Avoid proprietary standards. If you are an implementor, exhibit a strong preference for IETF standards. If the IETF standards aren't as good as the proprietary standards, work to make the IETF standards better. If you're a purchaser, avoid products that use proprietary standards that compete with the open standards of the IETF, and tell the companies you buy from that you are doing so.

Open Up. If your company controls a patent that is used in an IETF standard, convince them to make the patent available at no cost to everyone who is implementing the standard. In the past few years, patents have caused a lot of serious problems for Internet standards because they prevent some companies from being able to freely implement the standards. Fortunately, many companies have generously offered unlimited licenses for particular patents in order to help the IETF standards flourish. These companies are usually rewarded with positive publicity for the fact that they are not as greedy or short-sighted as other patent-holders.

Join. Become a member of ISOC?. More importantly, urge any company that has benefited from the Internet to become a corporate member of ISOC, since this has the greatest financial benefit for the group. It will, of course, also benefit the Internet as a whole."

work for IETF Secretariat (not recommended)

"There are, in fact, a few people who are paid to maintain the IETF. The IETF Secretariat provides day-to-day logistical support, which mainly means coordinating face-to-face meetings and running the IETF-specific mailing lists (not the WG mailing lists). The Secretariat is also responsible for keeping the official Internet Drafts directory up to date and orderly, maintaining the IETF Web site, and for helping the IESG do its work. The IETF Secretariat is financially supported by the fees of the face-to-face meetings."