[ih] This Review is for Everyone

[Craig Partridge]

I find it amusing, given what ISOC has become, that the initial goal for
ISOC was to set up an organization that did some nice things (e.g. a
conference, maybe a few awards, etc) and could be the not-worth-suing
entity that backstopped the IETF.  (Speaking as someone who was in the
conference room in DC in January/February 1990 when the idea of ISOC was
hatched.)

Craig

On Thu, Mar 12, 2026 at 9:42 AM Dave Crocker via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> 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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