RFC 1718 The Tao of IETF November 1994 Table of Contents Section 1 - The "Fun" Stuff What is the IETF? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Humble Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 IETF Mailing Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Newcomers' Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Dress Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Seeing Spots Before Your Eyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Terminal Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Social Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Other General Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Section 2 - The "You've got to know it" Stuff Registration Bullets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Mailing Lists and Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Important E-mail Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 IETF Proceedings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 InterNIC Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Be Prepared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 RFCs and Internet-Drafts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Frequently Asked Questions (and Their Answers) . . . . . . . 17 Pointers to Useful Documents and Files . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Section 3 - The "Reference" Stuff Tao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 IETF Area Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 What is the IETF? The Internet Engineering Task Force is a loosely self-organized group of people who make technical and other contributions to the engineering and evolution of the Internet and its technologies. It is the principal body engaged in the development of new Internet standard specifications. Its mission includes: o Identifying, and proposing solutions to, pressing operational and technical problems in the Internet; Internet Engineering Task Force