Bill Strahm's Weblog

Saturday August 07, 2004

The IETF in action Working in several standards bodies - I have discovered how unique the IETF actually is. I believe that it starts with their unique membership requirements. To belong to the IETF just takes joining the appropriate mailing list and participating. This is unique in that most standards bodies require members to pay large (sometimes into the 5 figure annually) membership dues. This means that effectively only companies can join - allowing their workers to participate.

The other unique feature is how decisions are made. For good or bad - decisions in the IETF are consensus based. Each member (remember anyone can join) has a say into how the standard ends up. Rather than other standards bodies where there are specified ballots (each member - read company) gets a vote - each vote counts as one, whoever has the most votes wins the election. In the IETF there is consensus that is determined by a Working Group chair. This means that everyone can be for something, but a strong minority dissenting view gets listened too, and addressed. This can be good if you have a single expert on a technology that should be listened too - it is bad when someone has an agenda to slow the progress of a working group.

I would like to talk some more in the coming days on the good and bad trends in the IETF, and especially some of the ramifications of their membership model on the future of the IETF.

(2004-08-07 13:23:36.0) Permalink