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Network Working Group                                          G. Malkin
Request for Comments: 1391                                Xylogics, Inc.
FYI: 17                                                     January 1993


                            The Tao of IETF
    A Guide for New Attendees of the Internet Engineering Task Force


Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.


Abstract

   Over the last two years, the attendance at Internet Engineering Task
   Force (IETF) Plenary meetings has grown phenomenally.  Approximately
   38% of the attendees are new to the IETF at each meeting.  About 33%
   of those go on to become regular attendees.  When the meetings were
   smaller, it wasn't very difficult for a newcomer to get to know
   people and get into the swing of things.  Today, however, a newcomer
   meets many more new people, some previously known only as the authors
   of Request For Comments (RFC) documents or thought provoking email
   messages.

   The purpose of this For Your Information (FYI) RFC is to explain to
   the newcomers how the IETF works.  This will give them a warm, fuzzy
   feeling and enable them to make the meeting more productive for
   everyone.  This FYI will also provide the mundane bits of information
   which everyone who attends an IETF meeting should know.


Acknowledgments

   The IETF Secretariat is made up of the following people: Steve Coya
   (Executive Director of the IETF), Cynthia Clark, Megan Davies, Debra
   Legare, and Greg Vaudreuil.  These are the people behind the
   Registration Table, and the success, of the IETF meetings.  I thank
   them for their hard work, and for their input and review of this
   document.  Thanks also to Vinton Cerf, Phillip Gross, and Craig
   Partridge for their review and comments.  And, as always, special
   thanks to April Marine and Skippy.

   I would also like to thank the management of Xylogics for their
   strong, continuing support of my IETF activities.



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Table of Contents

   Section 1 - The "Fun" Stuff
      What is the IETF? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
      Humble Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
      The Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
      IETF Mailing Lists  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
      Registration  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
      Dress Code  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
      Seeing Spots Before Your Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
      Terminal Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
      Social Event  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
      Agenda  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
      Other General Things  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8

   Section 2 - The "You've got to know it" Stuff
      Registration Bullets  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
      Mailing Lists and Archives  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
      Important Email Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
      IETF Proceedings  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
      Be Prepared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
      RFCs and Internet-Drafts  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
      Frequently Asked Questions (and Their Answers)  . . . . . . . 13
      Pointers to Useful Documents and Files  . . . . . . . . . . . 14

   Section 3 - The "Reference" Stuff
      Tao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
      IETF Area Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
      Acronyms  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
      References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
      Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
      Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19


What is the IETF?

   The IETF is the protocol engineering, development, and
   standardization arm of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).  Its
   mission includes:

   o  Identifying, and proposing solutions to, pressing operational and
      technical problems in the Internet;

   o  Specifying the development or usage of protocols and the near-term
      architecture to solve such technical problems for the Internet;

   o  Making recommendations to the IAB regarding standardization of
      protocols and protocol usage in the Internet;



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   o  Facilitating technology transfer from the Internet Research Task
      Force (IRTF) to the wider Internet community; and

   o  Providing a forum for the exchange of information within the
      Internet community between vendors, users, researchers, agency
      contractors, and network managers.

   The IETF Plenary meeting is not a conference, although there are
   technical presentations.  The IETF is not a traditional standards
   organization, although many standards are produced.  The IETF is the
   volunteers who meet three times a year to fulfill the IETF mission.

   There is no membership in the IETF.  Anyone may register for and
   attend any meeting.  The closest thing there is to being an IETF
   member is being on the IETF mailing lists (see the IETF Mailing Lists
   section).  This is where the best information about current IETF
   activities and focus can be found.


Humble Beginnings

   The first IETF meeting was held in January, 1986 at Linkabit in San
   Diego with 15 attendees.  The 4th IETF, held at SRI in Menlo Park in
   October, 1986, was the first at which non-government vendors
   attended.  The concept of Working Groups (WG) was introduced at the
   5th IETF meeting at the NASA Ames Research Center in California in
   February, 1987.  The 7th IETF, held at MITRE in McLean, Virginia in
   July, 1987, was the first meeting with over 100 attendees.

   The 14th IETF meeting was held at Stanford University in July, 1989.
   It marked a major change in the structure of the IETF universe.  The
   IAB (then, Internet Activities Board), which until that time oversaw
   many Task Forces, changed its structure to leave only two: the IETF
   and the IRTF.  The IRTF is tasked to consider the long-term research
   problems in the Internet.  The IETF also changed.  Those changes are
   visible in today's hierarchy.


The Hierarchy

   To completely understand the structure of the IETF, it is useful to
   understand the overall structure in which the IETF resides.  The
   Internet Society (ISOC), formed in January 1992, provides the
   official parent organization for the IETF.  The ISOC Board of
   Trustees appoints the members of the IAB.  The IETF and IRTF Chairs
   are also IAB members.  The IAB provides the final technical review of
   Internet standards.  They also provide leadership in the IETF, by
   virtue of their skills and years of experience.



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   The IETF is divided into nine functional Areas.  They are:
   Applications, Internet Services, Network Management, Operational
   Requirements, OSI Integration, Routing, Security, Transport and
   Services, and User Services.  Each Area has at least one Area
   Director.  There is also an Area Director who oversees Standards
   Management.  The Area Directors, along with the IETF Chair, form the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Phillip Gross has been
   the IETF Chair since the IETF's 7th meeting.  He founded the IESG and
   serves as its Chair as well.  The IESG provides the first technical
   review of Internet standards.  They are also responsible for the
   day-to-day "management" of the IETF.

   Each Area has several Working Groups.  A Working Group is a group of
   people who work under a charter to achieve a certain goal.  That goal
   may be the creation of an informational document, the creation of a
   protocol standard, or the resolution of problems in the Internet.
   Most Working Groups have a finite lifetime.  That is, once a Working
   Group has achieved its goal, it disbands.  As in the IETF, there is
   no official membership for a Working Group.  Unofficially, a Working
   Group member is somebody who's on that Working Group's mailing list.
   Anyone may attend a Working Group meeting (see the Be Prepared
   section below).

   Areas may also have Birds of a Feather (BOF) groups.  They generally
   have the same goals as Working Groups, except that they have no
   charter and usually only meet once or twice.  BOFs are often held to
   determine if there is enough interest to form a Working Group.


IETF Mailing Lists

   Anyone who plans to attend an IETF meeting should join the IETF
   announcements mailing list.  This is where all of the meeting
   information, new and revised Internet-Draft and RFC announcements,
   IESG Recommendations, and Last Calls are posted.  People who'd like
   to "get technical" may also join the IETF discussion list,
   "[e-mail]".  This was the only list before the
   announcement list was created and is where discussions of cosmic
   significance are held (most Working Groups have their own mailing
   lists for discussions relating to their work).  To join the IETF
   announcement list, send a request to:

        [e-mail]

   To join the IETF discussion list, send a request to:

        [e-mail]




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   To join both of the lists, simply send a single message, to either
   "-request" address, and indicate that you'd like to join both mailing
   lists.

   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 anyone can
   express their opinions about issues affecting the Internet.  However,
   it is not a place for companies or individuals to solicit or
   advertise.  Only the Secretariat can send a message to the
   announcement list.

   Even though the IETF mailing lists "represent" the IETF membership at
   large, it is important to note that attending an IETF meeting does
   not automatically include addition to either mailing list.


Registration

   As previously mentioned, all meeting announcements are sent to the
   IETF announcement list.  Within the IETF meeting announcement is a
   Registration Form and complete instructions for registering,
   including, of course, the cost.  The Secretariat highly recommends
   that attendees preregister.  Early registration, which ends about one
   month before the meeting, carries a lower registration fee.  As the
   size of the meetings has grown, so has the length of the lines at the
   registration desk.  Fortunately, there are three lines: the
   "preregistered and prepaid" line (which moves very quickly); the
   "preregistered and on-site payment" line (which moves a little more
   slowly); and the "registration and on-site payment" line (take a
   guess).

   Registration is open all week.  However, the Secretariat highly
   recommends that attendees arrive for early registration, beginning at
   6:00 P.M. (meeting local time), on the Sunday before the opening
   plenary.  Not only will there be fewer people, but there will also be
   a reception at which people can get a byte to eat.  If the
   registration lines are long, one can eat first and try again when the
   lines are shorter.  Newcomers are encouraged to attend the IETF
   Orientation on Sunday at 4:30 P.M.

   Registered attendees (and there isn't any other kind) receive a
   Registration Packet.  It contains a general orientation sheet, the



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   At-A-Glance sheet, a list of Working Group acronyms, the most recent
   Agenda, and a name tag.  The At-A-Glance is a very important
   reference and is used throughout the week.  It contains Working
   Group/BOF room assignments and a map of room locations.  Attendees
   who prepaid will also find their receipt in their packet.


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."


Seeing Spots Before Your Eyes

   Some of the people at the IETF will have a little colored dot on
   their name tags.  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 following meanings:

      red    - IAB member
      yellow - IESG member
      blue   - Working Group/BOF chair
      green  - Local host

   Local hosts are the people who can answer questions about the
   terminal room, and 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.

   To make life simpler for the Secretariat, Registration Packets are
   also coded with little colored dots.  These are only for Secretariat
   use, so the nobody else needs to worry about them.







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Terminal Room

   One of the most important (depending on your point of view) things
   the local host does is provide Internet access to the meeting
   attendees.  In general, the 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 who
   donate their equipment, services, and time are to be heartily
   congratulated and thanked.

   While preparation far in advance of the meeting is encouraged, there
   may be some unavoidable "last minute" things which 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