From the Editor's Desk

By: Mirjam Kühne

Date: June 8, 2016

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Congratulations, IETF, on 20 great years of Internet standards development!

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IETF, many activities took place at the 65th IETF in Dallas, Texas, US. The IETF community has come a long way since its first meeting on 16th January 1986 in San Diego, California.

At IETF 65 participants could test their inside knowledge by answering a number of trivia questions. Every day, small prizes were handed out to the winners.

Celebrations reached a high point during the Social event (co-sponsored by ISOC and Nokia) at the IETF 65. Many participants from the very earliest days of the IETF were present, including a number of earlier IETF chairs.

Lixia Zhang, professor at UCLA: “At the first IETF I was a graduate student. I felt that I had so much to contribute. I had lots of great ideas. As years go by, I have better appreciation of how much I can learn from this community. Each time I come to an IETF Meeting, I learn from others. Now, I feel how little I know. As a graduate student, I felt how much I know.”

Dave Clark, a professor at MIT, gave a presentation, referring back to a speech he gave in 1992, pointing out issues the IETF was facing back then, namely Routing and Security. The network has changed tremendously and much work has been done to get it to where it is today. However, these topics are still high on the agenda of the IETF today.

During the meeting, many enthusiastic attendees recorded their congratulations on video. You can view these here.

Throughout this issue of the IETF Journal, you will find reflections on the past and the future of the IETF from IETF participants, some of them involved since IETF 1, others that were Newcomers at IETF 65.

ISOC has declared 2006 the “Year of the IETF” and activities are planned throughout the year to celebrate the [email protected] Check back often for activities which will be announced throughout the year onhttp://ietf20.isoc.org.