Internet Engineering Task Force: Definition and additional resources from ZDNet

(c/o Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), Reston, VA, www.ietf.org) Founded in 1986, the IETF is a non-membership, open, voluntary standards organization dedicated to identifying problems and opportunities in IP data networks and proposing technical solutions to the Internet community.

The work of the IETF is done in working groups that are chartered to explore specific tasks. The groups are organized into areas, each with two directors. The directors, along with the IETF Chair, form the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). The IESG charters working groups and evaluates the proposals they develop. Proposals for IETF consideration are submitted by individuals in the form of temporary documents called "Internet Drafts." If proposals developed by the working groups are accepted by the IESG, they are published as RFCs.

The IETF works under the auspices of the Internet Society, which provides a legal framework and financial support. A small secretariat, provided by CNRI, supports the work of the IETF. The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is an IETF committee that provides architectural advice to the IETF and deals with IETF relationships with other standards organizations. The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is made up of research groups that explore new technologies, some of which are later proposed to the IETF. See BOF and RFC.

Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia.
Copyright (c) 1981-2008 The Computer Language Company Inc.
All rights reserved.

Additional Resources

Internet abuse and Cloud Computing: A recent uproar in the right wing blogosphere about the shutdown of anti-Obama sites on blogger.com has some serious implications for those considering cloud computing. What seems to have happened there was a simple, if pernicious, denial of service attack carried out for political reasons - but there's not much...; Tags: Google Inc., Cloud Computing, Blog, Blogging, Internet, Paul Murphy; Blog posts 2008-07-05
MSFT's acquisition of Powerset is not about search: The recent $100 million acquisition of Powerset, the semantic search engine company, by Microsoft looks to be more to do with advertising than beefing up the software giants' search capabilities. So far, Powerset has only demonstrated its technology against Wikipedia. It's a neat exhibit but it is...; Tags: Acquisition, Yahoo! Inc., Contextual Advertising, MSFT, Search, Tom Foremski; Blog posts 2008-07-04
July 4th, 2008: A trip down memory lane: A 1 question civics quiz Today American's celebrate the Declaration of Independence, the legal foundation of the USA and, after the failure of the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the United States. I revere the Constitution as a magnificent piece of political engineering. But it...; Tags: U.S., President, Storage, Hardware, Robin Harris; Blog posts 2008-07-04
Storm Worm's Independence Day campaign: A Storm Worm's Independence Day campaign is circulating online using email as propagation vector, attempting to trick users into visiting a Storm Worm infected host, where a multitude of what looks like over five different exploits attempt to automatically infect the visitors next to the malware binary fireworks.exe. Historically, Storm...; Tags: Software, Malware, Worm, Exploit, Storm Worm, Day Vulnerability, Cyberthreats, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Viruses And Worms, Security, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2008-07-04
Exit Reality (exe): Exit Reality is a free Internet plug-in that allows anyone to view any Web page in 3D. View any Web page in 3D every website is now an online world. Turn your standard 2D Web page into your own unique 3D space. Takes online social networking to a whole new...; Tags: 3D, Web Page, Exit Reality; Software downloads 2008-07-04

Adobe Lightroom Exporter For Pixelpost (zip): Now you can edit your images with Adobe Lightroom and upload them directly to your site. No more logging into your admin screen and manually upoading photos. Just a few clicks, and your images are live on the Internet. This version is the first release on CNET Download.com.; Tags: Adobe Systems Inc., Adobe Lightroom, Image, EcoSee Photography, Internet; Software downloads 2008-07-04
Website Submission Shareware (exe): Website Submission Shareware promote your software on the Web. Helps you find more than 2000 up-to-date shareware download sites, Website Submission Shareware helps you distributing programs to many shareware download sites on the Internet. This version is the first release on CNET Download.com.; Tags: Shareware, Web Site, Website Submission Shareware, Web Site Development, Web Technology, Internet; Software downloads 2008-07-04
4.2 mln Internet users signed up for fiber in Q1 2008: 4.2 mln Internet users signed up for fiber in Q1 2008???what is....mln??; Tags: Network technology, Q1 2008, fiber, Internet; Discussion threads 2008-07-03
Say it ain't so AVG, say it ain't so: AVG LinkScanner = Badware?: Say it ain't so AVG, say it ain't so: AVG LinkScanner = Badware?AVG Freeware Ain't So Free After All...Man, am I shocked that AVG is doing this. Of course I don't use the product but have made recommendations in the past to folks who could not afford to purchase good...; Tags: Scanners, Web browsers, Spyware, adware & malware, Cyberthreats, Viruses and worms, Badware, server log, AVG, AVG LinkScanner; Discussion threads 2008-07-03
EIC podcast: Search wars; Viacom vs. YouTube (and its users): EIC podcast: Search wars; Viacom vs. YouTube and its usersViacom's Data DragnetIt seems to me that their is no justification for allowing this data dragnet.Whether dynamic or static, IP addresses can be traced back to many of the original users through data from Internet service providers. The Whitter article cited...; Tags: Viacom Inc., YouTube Inc., IP address; Discussion threads 2008-07-03
Say it ain't so AVG, say it ain't so: AVG LinkScanner = Badware?: The Register covered a very interesting story about AVG.Â ApparentlyÂ AVG is spamming the Internet withÂ traffic that looks to be coming fromÂ Internet Explorer.Â AVG software pre-crawls search results to try to protect users, but uses a user agent that makes the software appear to be Internet Explorer.Â ThisÂ pre-crawling isÂ flooding websites with...; Tags: Webmaster, Traffic, Malware, Register, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Security, Scanners, Internet, Viruses And Worms, Hardware, Peripherals, Nathan McFeters; Blog posts 2008-07-03
On deck from MS: Four 'important' patches but nothing for IE: On deck from MS: Four 'important' patches but nothing for IEAm I correct that uninstalling Safari mitigates the problem?I realize it isn't a fix but am I correct in believing that for the time being, removing Safari effectively closes off the only known attack vector that can utilize this vulnerability?...; Tags: Web browsers, SECURITY, patch management, flaw, Apple Safari, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Internet Explorer; Discussion threads 2008-07-03
On deck from MS: Four 'important' patches but nothing for IE: Next Tuesday, Microsoft plans to ship four security updates for multiple flaws affecting Windows, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server but the absence of fixes for publicly known Internet Explorer issues is causing raised eyebrows among security professionals. According to the company's advance notice for July's...; Tags: Patch Management, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Flaw, Web Browsers, Microsoft Windows, Security, Internet, Operating Systems, Software, Ryan Naraine; Blog posts 2008-07-03
Why tech jobs are beating the employment odds: Why tech jobs are beating the employment oddsCan somebody tell me whenan economist has ever called it right? Every piece of economic news includes the line "more than" or "less than" what economists predicted.Why do we even listen to these folks?I'd have just put it more brutally...US companies have wanted...; Tags: employment odd, tech job; Discussion threads 2008-07-03
4.2 mln Internet users signed up for fiber in Q1 2008: Fiber providers added 4.2 mln customers in Q1 2008, while 2.5 mln customers signed up for cable modems, according to Point Topic. The bulk of the new fiber subscribers are in China, where 2.5 mln signed up, for a total of 16.7 mln. US is in #4 place after Japan...; Tags: Internet User, Internet, Fiber, Network Technology, Networking, AM; Blog posts 2008-07-03
Airport security part 4: Attack of the body scanners!: Airport security part 4: Attack of the body scanners!Airport SecurityI'm fairly sure if anyone was to see me naked... their eyeballs would no longer function anyway. I say go ahead, it's more a punishment for them than me. But I can certainly understand why many people would find...; Tags: airport security, body scanners!, scannerS!, Nate; Discussion threads 2008-07-03
Q'n'A: Are Youtube users are royally screwed?: Q'n'A: Are Youtube users are royally screwed?.....“[B]Had this not happened, Viacom would have made a huge amount of profit, but have now obviously lost out.[/B]”Subjective speculation that is unsubstantiated.“[B]YouTube could get shut down, Google could get fined to the nth degree, or maybe Google will get sued and it have...; Tags: Pandora, YouTube Inc., Viacom Inc., Google Inc.; Discussion threads 2008-07-03
WordPress, Gears, and the converging browser/desktop: WordPress, Gears, and the converging browser/desktopGears is good, but, we still need support for a better compiled languagelike a special sand-boxed version of Java. Without Java or similar, we can NOT do things like import complex file types or do a lot of the things that we need for full...; Tags: Mainframes, cloud computing, Web browsers, mainframe, Web application, desktop, Wordpress, Web browser; Discussion threads 2008-07-03
Q'n'A: Are Youtube users are royally screwed?: I've been reading the headlines today, and the main headlines on most of the top technology websites are about the YouTube/Google/Viacom saga. I'd like to call this: Youglecomgate, a potentially volatile situation hovers over the midst of everyone who has been on YouTube ever, so that's probably the majority of...; Tags: Google Inc., YouTube Inc., Viacom Inc., Corporate Communications, Internet, Networking, Marketing, Zack Whittaker; Blog posts 2008-07-03
Weekend Gadget Guidance: Sync files between computers over the Web, free: Freeware application and Web service Dropbox instantly backs up and syncs your files over the Internet and to any Windows or Mac computer. Once you install the application, it will create a Dropbox folder on your hard drive. Any file you put inside that folder will sync...; Tags: Web, File, Computer, Dropbox Web Interface, Productivity, Microsoft Windows, Channel Management, Operating Systems, Software, Marketing, Andrew Nusca; Blog posts 2008-07-03