The Internet Engineering Task Force has reached a significant milestone in the process of evolving its own administrative structure to best suit the current requirements of its work. After nearly two years of discussion about various options, the IETF community has created the IETF Administration LLC (IETF LLC), a new legal entity. Both the Internet Society’s CEO & President Kathy Brown and the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees Chair Gonzalo Camarillo have expressed strong support for the process that has led to this point, and for the direction the IETF has decided to take. Continuing its long-standing positions, the Internet Society also made financial commitments to support the process, and to the IETF going forward.
All of us at the Internet Society who work closely with the IETF believe this new administrative structure strengthens the the foundation for an Internet built on open standards. The new structure will not change any aspect of the IETF’s technical work or the Internet standards process, and clarifies the relationship between ISOC and the IETF. Importantly, the IETF and ISOC continue to be strongly aligned on key principles. ISOC initiatives related to the IETF, such as the Technical Fellows to the IETF and the Deploy360 Programme, will continue to support participation in the IETF and deployment of the standards created by the IETF.
In the more than three decades since it began, the IETF has evolved its administrative structure several times. The process that drove this latest evolution reflects a few important core operating principles of the IETF: open, consensus-based processes, improvement based on lessons learned from experience (“running code”), and always seeking ways to make the Internet work better – including the operational and administrative practices on which itself runs from day-to-day. We at the Internet Society look forward to the IETF’s continued success.