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- N-1-2-040.10 Internet Activities Board by A. Lyman Chapin*,
- <lyman@bbn.com>
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- The Internet Activities Board (IAB) is the coordinating committee for
- Internet design, engineering and management. The IAB is an
- independent committee of researchers and professionals with a
- technical interest in the health and evolution of the Internet system.
- Membership changes with time to adjust to the current realities of the
- research interests of the participants, the needs of the Internet
- system and the concerns of constituent members of the Internet.
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- The IAB has two principal subsidiary task forces: 1) the Internet
- Engineering Task Force (IETF); and 2) the Internet Research Task Force
- (IRTF). Each of these Task Forces is led by a chairman and guided by
- a Steering Group which reports to the IAB through its chairman. Each
- task force is organized, by the chairman, as required, to carry out
- its charter. For the most part, a collection of Working Groups
- carries out the work program of each Task Force. All decisions of the
- IAB are made public. The principal vehicle by which IAB decisions are
- propagated to the parties interested in the Internet and its TCP/IP
- protocol suite is the Request for Comments (RFC) note series. The
- official actions of the IAB are also reported in the Internet Society
- News.
-
- The current chairman of the IAB is Lyman Chapin, who succeeded Vint
- Cerf at the beginning of 1992. The other members of the IAB are
- Robert Braden, Hans-Werner Braun, Vinton Cerf, Phill Gross (who is
- also the chairman of the IETF), Christian Huitema, Steven Kent,
- Anthony Lauck, Barry Leiner, Daniel Lynch, and Jonathan Postel (who is
- also the chairman of the IRTF, the RFC Editor, and the Internet
- Assigned Numbers Authority).
-
- A small proportion of the RFCs document Internet Standards. The IAB
- recently published RFC 1310, which details the procedures that are
- followed for the development, review, and approval of specifications
- that are intended to become Internet Standards. An RFC summarizing
- the status of all standard RFCs is published regularly [the current
- version is RFC 1280].
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- * Chairman, Internet Activities Board
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