About ietf

Rough consensus is the primary basis for decision making. IETF standards are developed in an open, all-inclusive process in which any interested individual can participate. The maximum attendance during the first 13 meetings was only attendees.

For many years, the goal was three meetings a year, with two in North America and one in either Europe or Asia, alternating between them every other year. The -request lists are human-moderated. The claim, based on experience, is that one wire format accommodates multiple APIs. IETF meetings mostly review deltas on drafts and issues related.

Instead, it is meant to bring together authors of various WG and individual drafts to prevent overlap and to garner interest in particular topics. Both organizations have many concurrent sessions, more than one person can attend. This may be a naive view. And in the marketplace, by use. Discussions is very active.

There is a strong feeling among several key people that interoperability-in-the-large is achieved by wire protocols, not APIs.