[ih] Today’s Internet Still Relies on an ARPANET-Era Protocol: The Request for Comments (Steve Crocker)

[Brian E Carpenter]

On 08-Aug-20 11:47, Scott O. Bradner via Internet-history wrote:
> Internet Drafts are now archived by the IETF as are IETF main lists - in part because of
> interest by researchers but also interest by intellectual property lawyers

Yes. But quite a lot of older IETF mailing lists that were hosted benevolently by companies that no longer exist, or universities that have since "improved" their networks beyond recognition, are either lost or very hard to find.

More urgently: if you care about the *future* of the RFC Series as well as its past, I strongly suggest joining the Rfced-future mailing list: Rfced-future at iab.org
https://www.iab.org/mailman/listinfo/rfced-future
Strictly speaking it's about the role of Series Editor but the unspoken scope is wider.

As of today, a call for proposals is open:
https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/rfced-future/Y_IAXkSVk8RZY65Vzj00ncbXe4I
(The "Brian" signing that is not me.)

Regards
    Brian Carpenter

> 
> Scott
> 
>> On Aug 7, 2020, at 7:20 PM, Leo Vegoda via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 7, 2020 at 3:40 PM Dave Crocker via Internet-history
>> <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>> There is excellent archiving of the RFCs, but there has been no interest
>>> historical retention of of the surrounding mass of supporting work
>>> product. It seems that folk think the usual 'backups' are sufficient...
>>
>> The IETF has shown no interest or there has been no interest from
>> historians and their institutions?
>> -- 
>> Internet-history mailing list
>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>