RFC 1391 (rfc1391) - Page 2 of 19
The Tao of the IETF: A Guide for New Attendees of the Internet Engineering Task Force
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1391 The Tao of IETF January 1993
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;
Internet Engineering Task Force