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The Internet Engineering Task Force, a
self-organised group which shepherds the development of new technical
standards for the internet. Its brief includes identifying technical
problems, proposing and specifying the development of solutions to these
problems and providing a forum for the exchange of information within the
internet community. Despite the fact that the ietf is not a
traditional standards organisation--its ad hoc structure and open-to-all
policy would make the leaders of most analogous organisations shudder- it
produces many specifications that become internet standards. Its main unit
of currency is the rfc ( Request for Comments), a document that
details a new technological solution to a particular problem. Comments from
relevant experts then guide the development of that technology. One of the
ietf's stipulations for any proposal is that the standard in
question must actually exist, preferable in prototype. This is one of the
reasons for the internet's rapid technical progress |
