IETF Trends and Observations
draft-arkko-ietf-trends-and-observations-00

Abstract

While most of the work in the IETF is technical, the IETF should and does regularly examine itself, including its processes and goals, to determine if the technical community is truly serving the larger network engineering community effectively. Changes in this area tend to be incremental, as is fitting for an organization with decades of experience and history in developing and managing the process of building technical specifications. The rapid and ongoing changes in the world have recently caused a number of IETF participants to examine the current processes and operation of the IETF, particularly in the context of the culture of the IETF. This memo discusses some cultural and global trends in relation to the IETF's operating environment, how these trends might affect the operation of the IETF, and notes some topics for further exploration. Writing this memo has been inspired by involvement in various decisions that the IETF leadership has to take part in, often wishing to be able to draw more on understanding trends and their impact on the IETF. This memo is also input for discussion that the IETF community should have. The memo has no particular official standing, nor does it claim to represent more than the authors' thinking at the time of writing. There is no intent on the part of the authors for this to be published as a RFC. Please direct discussion about this topic to the ietf@ietf.org mailing list.

Authors

Jari Arkko
Alia Atlas
avri doria
Tobias Gondrom
Olaf Kolkman
Steve Olshansky
Benson Schliesser
Robert Sparks
Russ White

(Note: The e-mail addresses provided for the authors of this Internet-Draft may no longer be valid.)