[ih] This Review is for Everyone

[Jack Haverty]

On 3/12/26 09:40, Dave Crocker via Internet-history wrote:
> On 3/12/2026 9:28 AM, Andrew Sullivan via Internet-history wrote:
>> Like it or not, all the legal existence of the IETF is subordinate to 
>> the Internet Society.
>
>
> Ahh.  So the IETF did not exist before ISOC.  And if ISOC disappeared, 
> so would the IETF.
>
> Good to know.
>
> d/
>
Not what I remember.....

In early 1983, I was a member of the ICCB - the precursor to the IAB.  
  The ICCB was formed by Vint several years earlier, to serve as an 
advisory board to Vint at ARPA, setting priorities and plans, and then 
making them happen.  The ICCB was composed of individuals from the 
various organizations related to the Internet, e.g., Jon Postel, Dave 
Mills, Jim Mathis, Dave Clark, Bob Braden, Ed Cain, Ray McFarland, and 
myself, all invited by Vint to be members.  Hope I didn't miss 
anyone....   Bob Kahn called it "Vint's Cabinet".   After each meeting 
we would all go back to our respective organizations and do what we 
could to focus on the plans and priorities.

I recall one ICCB meeting, sometime around early 1983, when Vint 
announced he was leaving ARPA to go to MCI.  ARPA's Internet projects 
would subsequently be led by Barry Leiner.  In the ICCB discussions a 
plan emerged to organize the various projects on two tracks as part of 
the handoff.  The "research" efforts would be organized as the IRTF 
(Internet Research Task Force), led by Dave Clark.  The "engineering" 
efforts would be organized as the IETF (Internet Engineering Task 
Force), led by Phil Gross.

Subsequently Barry made some more changes, such as evolving the ICCB 
into the IAB, where each member would be the lead of some subgroup of 
the IETF or IRTF.   Coincidentally, in July 1983 BBN did a major 
reorganization which split apart its own "research" and "operations" 
projects into separate divisions (and buildings).  I ended up on the 
"operations" side and lost track of the research activities.

ISOC happened much later IIRC, trigged by some legal issues that arose, 
as the Internet became noticed by commercial and non-governmental 
interests, and the government focus shifted to use of COTS (Commercial 
Off The Shelf) products rather than expensive custom-built technical 
systems.

Prior to that, the Internet had largely been a project focused on 
military needs, with a "pipeline" driving technology from research to 
operations.  The most prominent example of full progress through that 
pipeline was the ARPANET, which evolved into the DDN as the 
comprehensive data communications system for all military needs.  But 
there were other projects proceeding down the pipeline, such as SATNET, 
which evolved into MATNET as a US Navy prototype, and Packet Radio, 
which evolved into prototype testing in Army exercises.   I don't know 
if either of those technologies advanced further down the pipeline.

Lots of actions helped propel projects down that pipeline.   I don't 
know for sure, but I always thought that the government members of the 
ICCB (Vint from Arpa and Ed and Ray from DoD) played a role in getting 
some of the non-technical actions to occur.  One example is the change 
in procurement regulations so that all the big government contractors 
were required to have TCP implemented in their deliverables.  Another 
was the creation by NBS (now NIST) of a program to certify that TCP had 
been implemented correctly, thus providing a means for all those 
contractors to contractually "prove" that they had actually implemented 
TCP.

I don't know much about the history of ISOC and the IETF.  But I've 
always wondered how and why things changed between 1983 and now.

In 1983 the Internet was an orchestrated project focused on meeting 
military communications requirements.  The government(s) controlled the 
direction and deployment through funding and regulations.

Today, the Internet is a global project with fuzzy requirements to meet 
all sorts of business and human needs, and seems driven mostly by market 
forces.

The early IETF was an organization of engineers focused on making the 
technology work to meet the requirements.  The IETF has evolved into a 
standards body, which puts technical solutions "on the shelf" and 
assumes someone who needs them will adopt and deploy as they see fit, 
but there seems to be no way to verify that a technology from the shelf 
is actually in place.

How did that evolution happen...?

/Jack Haverty


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