From the Editor’s Desk
Reducing the number of domain-specific username/password combinations we all have to carry around these days is one of the potential upsides of standardized federated authentication solutions. Leif Johansson of NORDUnet provides us with a review of developments and some of the exciting recent discussion that took place during IETF 77 in Anaheim, California, in his article, “It’s the F-Word“.
Anaheim, California, site of IETF 77
Another area of growing interest within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is that of peer-to-peer technologies (P2P). And in this issue, we get a good overview of the work to date and future directions for P2P in the IETF.
IPv6 deployment is a regular topic for discussion at IETF, and the IETF 77 meeting was no exception. ISOC organized a well-attended panel session, adjacent to the IETF meeting, that exposed the growing momentum behind IPv6 deployment (see page 9). In addition, there was output from the 3GPP/IETF workshop on IPv6 transition that took place in March 2010.
Reflecting on the successes and failures of an organization’s working life is an important part of developing and maturing as an organization. A new initiative to catalogue the outcomes of IETF workoffers just such an opportunity, and the case history of Uniform Resource Names leads to an important conclusion about Internet development and the role of the IETF.
Also in this issue are our regular columns from the chairs of the IETF, the Internet Architecture Board, and the Internet Research Task Force; coverage of the hot topics discussed during the plenary meetings; and an opportunity to get to know the ISOC Fellows to IETF 77 from around the world.
As always, we are hugely grateful to all of our contributors, and we welcome comments as well as suggestions for contributions to future issues. Readers can send email to [email protected].
This article was posted on 26 June 2010