Internet Engineering Task Force

Internet Engineering Task Force
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the largest and most visible of several loosely related ad-hoc groups that provide technical direction for the Internet, including the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), and the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF).
The IETF is a loosely self-organized group of international volunteers who contribute to the engineering and evolution of Internet technologies. It is the principal body engaged in the development of new Internet standard specifications. Much of the IETF's work is done in Working Groups. It does not "run the Internet", despite what some people might mistakenly say. The IETF does make voluntary standards that are often adopted by Internet users, but it does not control, or even patrol, the Internet.
The IETF started in January 1986 as a quarterly meeting of U.S. government funded researchers. Non-government representatives were invited starting with the fourth IETF meeting in October 1986. The concept of Working Groups was introduced at the fifth IETF meeting in February 1987. The seventh IETF meeting in July 1987 was the first meeting with more than 100 attendees. In 1992, the Internet Society, a professional membership society, was formed and IETF began to operate under it as an independent international standards body. The first IETF meeting outside of the United States was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in July 1993. Today the IETF meets three times a year and attendnce is often about 1,300 people, but has been as high as 2,000 upon occasion. Typically one in three IETF meetings are held in Europe or Asia. The number of non-US attendees is roughly 50%, even at meetings held in the United States.
The IETF is unusual in that it exists as a collection of happenings, but is not a corporation and has no board of directors, no members, and no dues. The closest thing there is to being an IETF member is being on the IETF or a Working Group mailing list. IETF volunteers come from all over the world and from many different parts of the Internet community. The IETF works closely with and under the supervision of the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).[68] The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) and the Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG), peer activities to the IETF and IESG under the general supervision of the IAB, focus on longer term research issues.