RFC 2031 (rfc2031) - Page 2 of 4
IETF-ISOC relationship
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2031 IETF-ISOC Relationship October 1996
Society (ISOC) is the obvious choice for this task. A straw poll at
the open plenary session of the IETF in december 1995 in Dallas
clearly confirmed this notion.
However, since this is an issue that is crucial to the functioning of
the IETF as a whole it is necessary to get a broad (rather than a
rough) consensus on this issue. At the same time it is necessary to
clearly indicate the extend of the relationship between the IETF and
ISOC. So both the IETF participants and the ISOC board of trustees
get a clear picture on the division of responsibilities.
The details of the Poised WG recommendations on the IETF - ISOC
relationships can be found in the appropriate places in a series of
Poised documents in progress: - The IETF Standards Process - The IETF
organizational structure - The IETF charter - The Nomcom procedures -
The Appeals procedures
The current document is meant to summarize the Poised WG
recommendations in order to gauge the consensus. This document does
not have, and is not intended to get, a formal status. The current
and upcoming working documents of the Poised WG will become the
formal documents. Readers who are interested in the nitty gritty
details are referred to these working documents of the Poised WG.
Main boundary condition
The IETF remains responsible for the development and quality of the
Internet Standards. The ISOC will aid the IETF by facilitating legal
and organizational issues as described below. Apart from the roles
described below, the IETF and ISOC acknowledge that the ISOC has no
influence whatsoever on the Internet Standards process, the Internet
Standards or their technical content.
All subgroups in the IETF and ISOC that have an official role in the
standards process should be either:
- open to anyone (like Working Groups); or
- have a well documented restricted membership in which the
voting members are elected or nominated through an open process.
The latter means that within the IETF the IAB and the IESG need to be
formed through a nomination process that is acceptable to the IETF
community and that gives all IETF participants an equal chance to be
candidate for a position in either of these bodies. For the ISOC this
means that the Board of Trustees should be elected by the ISOC
individual membership, where all individual members have an equal
vote and all individual members have an equal opportunity to stand as
a candidate for a position on the Board of Trustees.
Huizer Informational