[ih] This Review is for Everyone

[Dave Crocker]

On 3/12/2026 8:34 AM, Andrew Sullivan via Internet-history wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 03:09:41PM -0500, Dave Crocker via 
> Internet-history wrote:
>>
>> 'non-profit' seems entirely apt.
>
> Quite apart from that, with essentially all the administrative 
> responsibility controlled by bodies the members of which are mostly 
> appointed by the IETF NomCom, with the disregarded entity structure of 
> the IETF Administration LLC, with multiple staff members employed by 
> IETF Administration LLC, with active fundraising efforts ongoing, and 
> with a budget if memory serves some distance north of $10 MM annually, 
> it's getting a little precious to maintain that the IETF isn't the 
> organization--indeed, that the IETF isn't an organization at all--and 
> that IETF Administration LLC is some other entity, accidentally named 
> similarly but that _isn't_ the IETF.  I think this pose mostly worked 
> as long as the IETF was an "organized activity" of the Internet 
> Society, but I don't believe anyone can take it really seriously as a 
> description of the facts of the world any more. 


Except is isn't an activity of ISOC.  And never has been.

The relationship between the IETF and ISOC is interesting, IMO, since it 
is quite unusual and nuanced, and has typically been publicly presented 
as neither.

At base, the IETF contracts with ISOC for a collection of services.  
Funding, oversight, etc.

So, it looks as if ISOC is 'over' the IETF and it has usually been 
presented that way, but it isn't the actual nature of the locus of control.

d/

-- 
Dave Crocker

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