Re: Transition

["Vinton G. Cerf" <[e-mail]>]

Stef, et al,

The IETF secretariat has 5 full-time support staff. The RFC-editor
occupies more than one person. Assembling Internet Monthly
and Research Monthly occupies more people. This administrative
effort needs to be supported if the IETF is to get its work done. 
An IETF meeting is roughly the size of, say, an annual SIGCOMM
conference, but much more complex because of the working group
scheduling, tracking of attendance, capture of minutes/notes, and
so on. 

For a long time, the US Federal Government has sponsored much of
the effort, both technical and administrative, for this process
to work. Recently, the view has been taken that this whole process
benefits a number of parties in industry and many outside the US.
As a consequence, the Government would like to see a broader base
of support for this work. This is a reasonable position, in my
opinion, and not unexpected. Formation of the Internet Society
was, in part, motivated by the belief that such an organization
could eventually undertake to provide support for the IETF operation,
relieving in increasing degree dependence on the US Government.

In addition to that important concern, it has become increasingly
apparent that the activities of the IAB and IETF have significant
financial impact in the market place. Competitive interests come
into play and create tension with more altruistic, collaborative
motives (e.g., the good of the Internet community). These tensions
lead to increasing liability risks (anti-trust complaints, unfair
competition, abuse of standards-making processes). Without some
kind of institutional framework, everyone involved in fashioning
the standards used by the Internet is exposed to unlimited liability.

The Internet Society, as an organization, and the trustees, as
individuals, do not have any particular axe to grind with regard
to the work of the IAB and IETF. Their focus of attention is the
successful growth of a professional membership organization which
can support the IAB and IETF work among a number of other things,
including publications, conferences, workshops, volunteer programs
and general education of the public about the Internet.

It's my opinion that this is really needed. Trying to make the IETF
work on a purely volunteer basis is unlikely, unless the volunteers
can do this work on a full-time basis. Moreover, it takes a well-knit
team to carry out all of the tasks involved and a distributed set of
volunteers may not be able to fill the bill. The IEEE and the ACM
are example professional organizations which make use of full-time
staff to assist the efforts of many volunteers and this seems to me
a reasonable model of how we should proceed with regard to support
for the IETF. 

A lot of people have spent a great deal of time and effort, including
many members of the industry spawned by Internet, academia and members
of government, to organize the Internet Society and to provide it 
with support towards reaching these various objectives. The hundreds
of people who are involved in IETF deserve the best support possible.
I hope that you and other participants in the IETF will be able to
continue your work. You need ISOC support to do it and ISOC needs
your support in return.

Vint