working in conjunction with the IESG. An important secondary role is
to provide one definitive repository for all RFCs (see
http://www.rfc-editor.org). Once an RFC is published, it is never
revised. If the standard it describes changes, the standard will be
re-published in another RFC that "obsoletes" the first.
One of the most popular misconceptions in the IETF community is that
the role of the RFC Editor is performed by IANA. In fact, the RFC
Editor is a separate job, although both the RFC Editor and IANA
involved the same people for many years. The IAB approves the
organization that will act as RFC Editor and the RFC Editor’s general
policy. The RFC Editor is funded by IASA and can be contacted by
email at mailto:rfc-editor@rfc-editor.org.
3.2.6. IETF Secretariat
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 helping the IESG do its work. It provides various tools
for use by the community and the IESG. The IETF Secretariat is under
contract to IASA, which in turn is financially supported by the fees
of the face-to-face meetings.
3.3. IETF Mailing Lists
Anyone who plans to attend an IETF meeting should join the IETF
announcement mailing list, mailto:ietf-announce@ietf.org. This is
where all of the meeting information, RFC announcements, and IESG
Protocol Actions and Last Calls are posted. People who would like to
"get technical" may also join the IETF general discussion list,
ietf@ietf.org. This is where discussions of cosmic significance are
held (Working Groups have their own mailing lists for discussions
related to their work). Another mailing list, mailto:i-d-
announce@ietf.org, announces each new version of every Internet Draft
as it is published.
Subscriptions to these and other IETF-run mailing lists are handled
by a program called "mailman". Mailman can be somewhat finicky about
the format of subscription messages, and sometimes interacts poorly
with email programs that make all email messages into HTML files.
Mailman will treat you well, however, if you format your messages
just the way it likes.
To join the IETF announcement list, for example, send email to
mailto:ietf-announce-request@ietf.org. Enter the word ’subscribe’
(without the quotes) in the Subject line of the message and in the
message body. To join the IETF discussion list, send email to
<mailto:ietf-request@ietf.org> and enter the word ’subscribe’ as
explained above. If you decide to withdraw from either list, use the
word ’unsubscribe’. Your messages to mailman should have nothing
other than the commands ’subscribe’ or ’unsubscribe’ in them. Both
lists are archived on the IETF web site,
http://www.ietf.org/maillist.html.
Do not, ever, under any circumstances, for any reason, send a request
to join a list to the list itself! The thousands of people on the
list don’t need, or want, to know when a new person joins.
Similarly, when changing email addresses or leaving a list, send your
request only to the "-request" address, not to the main list. This
means you!!
The IETF discussion list is unmoderated. This means that all can
express their opinions about issues affecting the Internet. However,
it is not a place for companies or individuals to solicit or
advertise, as noted in [BCP45], "IETF Discussion List Charter". It
is a good idea to read the whole RFC (it’s short!) before posting to
the IETF discussion list. Actually, the list does have two
"sergeants at arms" who keep an eye open for inappropriate postings,
and there is a process for banning persistent offenders from the
list, but fortunately this is extremely rare.
Only the Secretariat and certain IETF office holders can approve
messages sent to the announcement list, although those messages can
come from a variety of people.
Even though the IETF mailing lists "represent" the IETF membership at
large, it is important to note that attending an IETF meeting does
not mean you’ll be automatically added to either mailing list.
4. IETF Meetings
The computer industry is rife with conferences, seminars,
expositions, and all manner of other kinds of meetings. IETF face-
to-face meetings are nothing like these. The meetings, held three
times a year, are week-long "gatherings of the tribes" whose primary
goal is to reinvigorate the WGs to get their tasks done, and whose
secondary goal is to promote a fair amount of mixing between the WGs
and the areas. The cost of the meetings is paid by the people
attending and by the corporate host for each meeting (if any),
although IASA kicks in additional funds for things such as the audio
broadcast of some Working Group sessions.
For many people, IETF meetings are a breath of fresh air when
compared to the standard computer industry conferences. There is no
exposition hall, few tutorials, and no big-name industry pundits.
Instead, there is lots of work, as well as a fair amount of time for
socializing. IETF meetings are of little interest to sales and
marketing folks, but of high interest to engineers and developers.
Most IETF meetings are held in North America, because that’s where
most of the participants are from; however, meetings are held on
other continents about once every year. The past few meetings have
had about 1,300 attendees. There have been more than 65 IETF
meetings so far, and a list of upcoming meetings is available on the
IETF web pages, http://www.ietf.org/meetings/0mtg-sites.txt.
Newcomers to IETF face-to-face meetings are often in a bit of shock.
They expect them to be like other standards bodies, or like computer
conferences. Fortunately, the shock wears off after a day or two,
and many new attendees get quite animated about how much fun they are
having. One particularly jarring feature of recent IETF meetings is
the use of wireless Internet connections throughout the meeting
space. It is common to see people in a WG meeting apparently reading
email or perusing the web during presentations they find
uninteresting. Remember, however, that they may also be consulting
the drafts under discussion, looking up relevant material online, or
following another meeting using instant messaging.
4.1. Registration
To attend an IETF meeting, you have to register and you have to pay
the registration fee. The meeting site and advance registration are
announced about two months ahead of the meeting -- earlier if
possible. An announcement goes out via email to the IETF-announce
mailing list, and information is posted on the IETF web site,
http://www.ietf.org, that same day.
To pre-register, you must submit your registration on the web. You
may pre-register and pre-pay, pre-register and return to the web site
later to pay with a credit card, pre-register and pay on-site at the
meeting, or register and pay on-site. To get a lower registration
fee, you must pay by the early registration deadline (about one week
before the meeting). The registration fee covers all of the week’s
meetings, the Sunday evening reception (cash bar), daily continental
breakfasts, and afternoon coffee and snack breaks.
Credit card payments on the web are encrypted and secure, or, if you
prefer, you can use Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) to send your payment
information to the Registrar (mailto:ietf-registrar@ietf.org).
Registration is open throughout the week of the meeting. However,
the Secretariat highly recommends that attendees arrive for early
registration, usually beginning at noon on Sunday and continuing
throughout the Sunday evening reception. The reception is a popular
event where you can get a small bite to eat and socialize with other
early arrivals.
Registered attendees (and there aren’t any other kind) receive a
registration packet. It contains much useful information, including
a general orientation sheet, the most recent agenda, and a name tag.
Attendees who pre-paid will also find their receipt in their packet.
It’s worth noting that neither attendee names and addresses nor IETF
mailing lists are ever offered for sale.
In your registration packet is a sheet titled "Note Well". You
should indeed read it carefully because it lays out the rules for
IETF intellectual property rights.
If you need to leave messages for other attendees, you can do so at
the cork boards that are often near the registration desk. These
cork boards will also have last-minute meeting changes and room
changes.
You can also turn in lost-and-found items to the registration desk.
At the end of the meeting, anything left over from the lost and found
will usually be turned over to the hotel or brought back to the
Secretariat’s office.
Incidentally, the IETF registration desk is often a convenient place
to arrange to meet people. If someone says "meet me at
registration", they almost always mean the IETF registration desk,
not the hotel registration desk.
4.2. Take the Plunge and Stay All Week!
IETF meetings last from Monday morning through Friday lunchtime.
Associated meetings often take place on the preceding or following
weekends. It is best to plan to be present the whole week, to
benefit from cross-fertilization between Working Groups and from
corridor discussions. As noted below, the agenda is fluid, and there
have been many instances of participants missing important sessions
due to last-minute scheduling changes after their travel plans were
fixed. Being present the whole week is the only way to avoid this
annoyance.
If you cannot find meetings all week to interest you, you can still
make the most of the IETF meeting by working between sessions. Most
IETF attendees carry laptop computers, and it is common to see many
of them in the terminal room or in the hallways working during
meeting sessions. There is often good wireless Internet coverage in
many places of the meeting venue (restaurants, coffee shops, and so
on), so catching up on email when not in meetings is a fairly common
task for IETFers.
4.3. Newcomer Training
Newcomers are encouraged to attend the Newcomer Training, which is
especially designed for first-time attendees. The orientation is
organized and conducted by the IETF EDU team and is intended to
provide useful introductory information. The session covers what’s
in the attendee packets, what all the dots on name tags mean, the
structure of the IETF, and many other essential and enlightening
topics for new IETFers.
Immediately following the Newcomers’ Training is the IETF Standards
Process Orientation. This session demystifies much of the standards
process by explaining what stages a document has to pass through on
its way to becoming a standard, and what has to be done to advance to
the next stage.
There is usually ample time at the end for questions. The
Secretariat provides hard copies of the slides of the "IETF Structure
and Internet Standards Process" presentation -- these very useful
slides are also available online at www.ietf.org under "Educational
Materials".
The orientation is normally held on Sunday afternoon, along with
tutorials of interest to newcomers and old-timers alike. Check the
agenda for exact times and locations.
4.4. Dress Code
Since attendees must wear their name tags, they must also wear shirts
or blouses. Pants or skirts are also highly recommended. Seriously
though, many newcomers are often embarrassed when they show up Monday
morning in suits, to discover that everybody else is wearing T-
shirts, jeans (shorts, if weather permits) and sandals. There are
those in the IETF who refuse to wear anything other than suits.
Fortunately, they are well known (for other reasons) so they are
forgiven this particular idiosyncrasy. The general rule is "dress
for the weather" (unless you plan to work so hard that you won’t go
outside, in which case, "dress for comfort" is the rule!).
4.5. Seeing Spots Before Your Eyes
Some of the people at the IETF will have a little colored dot on
their name tag. A few people have more than one. These dots
identify people who are silly enough to volunteer to do a lot of
extra work. The colors have the meanings shown here.
Color Meaning
--------------------------------------
Blue Working Group/BOF chair
Green Host group
Red IAB member
Yellow IESG member
Orange Nominating Committee member
(Members of the press wear orange-tinted badges.)
Local hosts are the people who can answer questions about the
terminal room, restaurants, and points of interest in the area.
It is important that newcomers to the IETF not be afraid to strike up
conversations with people who wear these dots. If the IAB and IESG
members and Working Group and BOF chairs didn’t want to talk to
anybody, they wouldn’t be wearing the dots in the first place.
4.6. Terminal Room
One of the most important (depending on your point of view) things
the host does is provide Internet access for the meeting attendees.
In general, wired and wireless connectivity is excellent. This is
entirely due to the Olympian efforts of the local hosts and their
ability to beg, borrow, and steal. The people and companies that
donate their equipment, services, and time are to be heartily
congratulated and thanked.
Although preparation far in advance of the meeting is encouraged,
there may be some unavoidable "last minute" things that can be
accomplished in the terminal room. It may also be useful to people
who need to make trip reports or status reports while things are
still fresh in their minds.
You need to be wearing your badge in order to get into the terminal
room. The terminal room provides lots of power strips, lots of
Ethernet ports for laptops, wireless (for the people who don’t need
Ethernet but want power), usually a printer for public use, and
sometimes workstations. What it doesn’t provide are terminals; the
name is historical. The help desk in the terminal room is a good
place to ask questions about network failures, although they might
point you off to different networking staff.
4.7. Meals and Other Delights
Marshall Rose once remarked that the IETF was a place to go for "many
fine lunches and dinners". Although it is true that some people eat
very well at the IETF, they find the food on their own; lunches and
dinners are not included in the registration fee. The Secretariat
does provide appetizers at the Sunday evening reception (not meant to
be a replacement for dinner), continental breakfast every morning,
and (best of all) cookies, brownies, and other yummies during
afternoon breaks.
If you prefer to get out of the hotel for meals, the local host
usually provides a list of places to eat within easy reach of the
meeting site.
4.8. Social Event
Another of the most important things organized and managed by the
host is the IETF social event. Sometimes, the social event is a
computer- or high-tech-related event. At one Boston IETF, for
example, the social was dinner at the Computer Museum. Other times,
the social might be a dinner cruise or a trip to an art gallery.
Note, however, that not all IETF meetings have social events.
Newcomers to the IETF are encouraged to attend the social event. All
are encouraged to wear their name tags and leave their laptops
behind. The social event is designed to give people a chance to meet
on a social, rather than technical, level.
4.9. Agenda
The agenda for the IETF meetings is a very fluid thing. It is
typically sent to the IETF announcement list a few times prior to the
meeting, and it is also available on the web. The final agenda is
included in the registration packets. Of course, "final" in the IETF
doesn’t mean the same thing as it does elsewhere in the world. The
final agenda is simply the version that went to the printer. The
Secretariat will post agenda changes on the bulletin board near the
IETF registration desk (not the hotel registration desk). These late
changes are not capricious: they are made "just in time" as session
chairs and speakers become aware of unanticipated clashes. The IETF
is too dynamic for agendas to be tied down weeks in advance.
Assignments for breakout rooms (where the Working Groups and BOFs
meet) and a map showing the room locations are also shown on the
agenda. Room assignments can change as the agenda changes. Some
Working Groups meet multiple times during a meeting, and every
attempt is made to have a Working Group meet in the same room for
each session.
4.10. EDU to the Rescue
If certain aspects of the IETF still mystify you (even after you
finish reading the Tao), you’ll want to drop in on the on-site
training offered by the Education (EDU) team. These informal classes
are designed for newcomers and seasoned IETFers alike. In addition
to the Newcomer Training, the EDU team offers workshops for document
editors and Working Group chairs, plus an in-depth security tutorial
that’s indispensable for both novices and longtime IETF attendees.
EDU sessions are generally held on Sunday afternoons. You’ll find
more about the EDU team at http://edu.ietf.org/.
4.11. Where Do I Fit In?
The IETF is different things to different people. There are many
people who have been very active in the IETF who have never attended
an IETF meeting. You should not feel obligated to come to an IETF
meeting just to get a feel for the IETF. The following guidelines
(based on stereotypes of people in various industries) might help you
decide whether you actually want to come and, if so, what might be
the best use of your time at your first meeting.
4.11.1. IS Managers
As discussed throughout this document, an IETF meeting is nothing
like any trade show you have attended. IETF meetings are singularly
bad places to go if your intention is to find out what will be hot in
the Internet industry next year. You can safely assume that going to
Working Group meetings will confuse you more than it will help you
understand what is happening, or will be happening, in the industry.
This is not to say that no one from the industry should go to IETF
meetings. As an IS manager, you might want to consider sending
specific people who are responsible for technologies that are under
development in the IETF. As these people read the current Internet
Drafts and the traffic on the relevant Working Group lists, they will
get a sense of whether or not their presence would be worthwhile for
your company or for the Working Groups.
4.11.2. Network Operators and ISPs
Running a network is hard enough without having to grapple with new
protocols or new versions of the protocols with which you are already
dealing. If you work for the type of network that is always using
the very latest hardware and software, and you are following the
relevant Working Groups in your copious free time, you could
certainly find participating in the IETF valuable. A fair amount of
IETF work also covers many other parts of operations of ISPs and
large enterprises, and the input of operators is quite valuable to
keep this work vibrant and relevant. Many of the best operations
documents from the IETF come from real-world operators, not vendors
and academics.
4.11.3. Networking Hardware and Software Vendors
The image of the IETF being mostly ivory tower academics may have
been true in the past, but the jobs of typical attendees are now in
industry. In most areas of the IETF, employees of vendors are the
ones writing the protocols and leading the Working Groups, so it’s
completely appropriate for vendors to attend. If you create Internet
hardware or software, and no one from your company has ever attended
an IETF meeting, it behooves you to come to a meeting if for no other
reason than to tell the others how relevant the meeting was or was
not to your business.
This is not to say that companies should close up shop during IETF
meeting weeks so everyone can go to the meeting. Marketing folks,
even technical marketing folks, are usually safe in staying away from
the IETF as long as some of the technical people from the company are
at the meeting. Similarly, it isn’t required, or likely useful, for
everyone from a technical department to go, particularly if they are
not all reading the Internet Drafts and following the Working Group
mailing lists. Many companies have just a few designated meeting
attendees who are chosen for their ability to do complete and useful
trip reports. In addition, many companies have internal coordination
efforts and a standards strategy. If a company depends on the
Internet for some or all of its business, the strategy should
probably cover the IETF.
4.11.4. Academics
IETF meetings are often excellent places for computer science folks
to find out what is happening in the way of soon-to-be-deployed
protocols. Professors and grad students (and sometimes overachieving
undergrads) who are doing research in networking or communications
can get a wealth of information by following Working Groups in their
specific fields of interest. Wandering into different Working Group
meetings can have the same effect as going to symposia and seminars
in your department. Researchers are also, of course, likely to be
interested in IRTF activities.
4.11.5. Computer Trade Press
If you’re a member of the press and are considering attending IETF,
we’ve prepared a special section of the Tao just for you -- please
see Section 10.2.
4.12. Proceedings
IETF proceedings are compiled in the two months following each
meeting and are available on the web and on CD. Be sure to look
through a copy -- the proceedings are filled with information about
IETF that you’re not likely to find anywhere else. For example,
you’ll find snapshots of most WG charters at the time of the meeting,
giving you a better understanding of the evolution of any given
effort.
The proceedings sometimes start with an informative (and highly
entertaining) message. Each volume contains the final (hindsight)
agenda, an IETF overview, area and Working Group reports, and slides
from the protocol and technical presentations. The Working Group
reports and presentations are sometimes incomplete, if the materials
haven’t been turned in to the Secretariat in time for publication.
An attendee list is also included, which contains names and
affiliations as provided on the registration form. For information
about obtaining copies of the proceedings, see the web listing at
http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/directory.html.
4.13. Other General Things
The IETF Secretariat, and IETFers in general, are very approachable.
Never be afraid to approach someone and introduce yourself. Also,
don’t be afraid to ask questions, especially when it comes to jargon
and acronyms.
Hallway conversations are very important. A lot of very good work
gets done by people who talk together between meetings and over
lunches and dinners. Every minute of the IETF can be considered work
time (much to some people’s dismay).
A "bar BOF" is an unofficial get-together, usually in the late
evening, during which a lot of work gets done over drinks. Bar BOFs
spring up in many different places around an IETF meeting, such as
restaurants, coffee shops, and (if we are so lucky) pools.
It’s unwise to get between a hungry IETFer (and there isn’t any other
kind) and coffee break brownies and cookies, no matter how
interesting a hallway conversation is.
IETFers are fiercely independent. It’s safe to question opinions and
offer alternatives, but don’t expect an IETFer to follow orders.
The IETF meetings, and the plenary session in particular, are not
places for vendors to try to sell their wares. People can certainly
answer questions about their company and its products, but bear in
mind that the IETF is not a trade show. This does not preclude