[Chapter-delegates] IETF Journal latest edition

Tue Jan 17 14:56:34 PST 2006

ISOC remains deeply in bed with the IETF, trust me. What has happened  
with the IETF is difficult to explain simply, as it is not a simple  
thing and the relationship between ISOC and the IETF has never been  
simple to explain. I'll try.

The IETF is an unincorporated entity, and incorporating it would  
necessitate figuring out who its "members" are and how they are  
chosen. That is not a simple thing at all. ISOC was created in part  
to provide the legal framework for the IETF that it lacked (if you  
want to sue someone, whom do you sue?), and maintained the copyright  
on the RFCs and internet drafts in trust for the IETF, and provided  
about 1/3 of the IETF's funding. CNRI hosted the IETF's Secretariat,  
and IETF meeting fees flowed through them and largely paid for  
Secretariat salaries and the costs of holding meetings. CNRI also  
managed the IETF's web sites and a number of its mailing lists.

What that meant for the IETF (as a former IETF Chair, I am familiar  
with this first hand) is that the IETF has always been the  
beneficiary of a number of folks (including the IANA and the RFC  
Editor's office) that want to "do the right thing" and are  
appreciated and valued members of the community, but always feel that  
they are calling the shots when it comes to their part of the deal.  
The IETF, as a result, had very few levers with which it could guide  
its own future. That is a difficult situation, and the IETF decided  
about two years ago that it needed to change that. Without reciting  
all of the steps and mis-steps in that process, the end result is  
that ISOC now employs a person named Ray Peltier, who is the IETF  
Administrative Director, manages the IETF Administrative Support  
Activity (IASA), and (in a matrix management sense) reports to a  
board called the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC).  
ISOC, as embodies in the IASA, is responsible for all of the IETF's  
funding, including paying Neustar for secretariat services and ISI  
for the RFC Editor's services, and negotiating contracts as  
appropriate for those and other services in the future.

This, of course, required CNRI to give up any IPR that they held for  
the IETF, and they weren't willing to do that unless ISOC did as  
well. OK, the IAOC set up a trust (the IETF Trust) and both CNRI and  
ISOC put all of the intellectual property they held that had been  
generated in the IETF or using IETF funding into that trust. The  
logic there, on ISOC's side, was that the IPR in question was held in  
trust for the IETF anyway, and if the IETF wanted it held in a  
certain way, ISOC needed to let the IETF call that ball. It never  
belonged to ISOC in the first place, and there was no reason for us  
to hold on to it if the IETF wanted something different.

So yes, there has been a legal shell game with contracts and assets.  
Functionally, the net result is that ISOC, in the person of the IASA,  
is now responsible for 100% of IETF funding, not ~30%, is much more  
closely related to the IETF than ever before.

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4071.txt
4071 Structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA). R.
      Austein, Ed., B. Wijnen, Ed.. April 2005. (Format: TXT=48614  
bytes)
      (Updated by RFC4371) (Also BCP0101) (Status: BEST CURRENT  
PRACTICE)

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4371.txt
4371 BCP 101 Update for IPR Trust. B. Carpenter, Ed., L. Lynch, Ed..
      January 2006. (Format: TXT=6901 bytes) (Updates RFC4071) (Also
      BCP0101) (Status: BEST CURRENT PRACTICE)

On Jan 17, 2006, at 11:23 AM, Franck Martin wrote:

> Congratulation on this second edition. I read it a little bit and  
> it is
> much more informative than the first one. It is however still directed
> to the specialist and not the general public like the ISOC members.  
> Keep
> the good work!
>
> However, on the first page I read some disturbing news for ISOC.
>
> I read that the IETF has created a trust and that ISOC has transferred
> all its intellectual property related to IETF to this trust. This  
> is, I
> think a good thing for IETF, but somebody on the board of ISOC would
> like to explain it to us?
>
> I feel like that it has been negotiated in the back of the ISOC  
> members,
> I never heard anything about it, nor some prior announcement.
>
> Does it mean that all the RFC copyrights now belong to the IETF trust?
>
> ISOC was the kind of organisation umbrella for IETF, now that there is
> the IETF trust, what is the role of ISOC? I suppose the IETF trust  
> will
> be able to raise its own money now?
>
> You don't make such modifications to the structure of ISOC without
> informing the membership and get their approval, or does ISOC  
> membership
> not really matter as we can see in elections. What is the role of  
> board
> members elected by chapters? How do they keep us informed?
>
> Cheers.
>
> David McAuley wrote:
>
>> Dear Chapter Delegates:
>>
>> The latest edition of the ISOC's new publication, the IETF  
>> Journal, is
>> now available on-line at http://ietfjournal.isoc.org/
>>
>> This issue, Volume 1, Issue 2 (Winter 2005/2006), contains a  
>> review of
>> IETF 64 as well as lots more interesting IETF related information.
>>
>> Please be sure to spread the word and the link to this publication
>> within your chapter and to other Internet interested contacts.
>>
>> Very truly yours,
>> David
>>
>> David McAuley
>> Membership Director
>> Internet Society
>> 703-326-9880, ext 104
>> 703-963-5887 (mobile)
>> mcauley at isoc.org
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Chapter-delegates mailing list
>> Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
>> http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates
>>
>>
>
> -- 
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> Franck Martin
> franck at sopac.org
> "Toute connaissance est une réponse à une question"
> G. Bachelard
>
>
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