In spite of the worldwide economic downturn, IETF 74 was a highly successful meeting. The work of the IETF remains relevant and enthusiastic. Held in San Francisco in March 2009, the meeting drew 1,157 people from 49 different countries. The total number of attendees from California was 273, compared with 143, which is the average number who attended each of the previous three meetings.
Juniper Networks, which hosted the meeting, did a great job, and everyone felt welcome (the T-shirt design drew a number of compliments). The social event was well attended, providing an enjoyable and science-filled evening. The site network was subcontracted to VeriLAN Networks, whose staff, working with dedicated volunteers, made sure the network ran smoothly.
The week was filled with the usual mixture of working group (WG) meetings, birds-of-a-feather (BoF) sessions, research group (RG) meetings, and, as always, many side meetings.
Since IETF 73, one new WG was chartered and six WGs were closed. Currently there are approximately 110 chartered WGs. Between IETF 73 and IETF 74, the WGs and their individual contributors produced 424 new Internet-Drafts and updated 1,013 Internet-Drafts, some of them more than once. The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) approved 106 Internet-Drafts for publication as RFCs. The RFC Editor published 86 new RFCs.
During IETF 74, the IESG passed four seats to new members, and the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) passed two seats to new members. Our thanks to Ed Juskevicius (IAOC), Chris Newman (Applications Area Director [AD]), Jon Peterson (Transport AD and then RAI AD), Jonne Soininen (IAOC), Mark Townsley (Internet AD), and Dave Ward (Routing AD) for their many years of service to the community. We welcome Ralph Droms (Internet AD), Marshall Eubanks (IAOC), Adrian Farrel (Routing AD), Alexey Melnikov (Applications AD), Robert Sparks (RAI AD), and Henk Uijterwaal (IAOC). Thank you for your willingness to serve.
Throughout the week, an IPv6-only network was available for attendees to experience the Internet without IPv4. The discussion of requirements for NAT-PT (network address translation-protocol translation) continues.
In the few weeks prior to IETF 74, there were several intellectual property right (IPR) surprises. To avoid future surprises, a portion of the Wednesday plenary was devoted to a reminder of IETF policies in this area. If you were not there, please review the slides from that session. They are available here.
The Wednesday plenary also included a discussion of potential changes to the Nominating Committee (NomCom) process. The discussion has continued on the [email protected] mail list. Please join the discussion about the process used for picking IETF leaders.
I look forward to IETF 75 in Stockholm, Sweden, on 26-31 July 2009. The meeting will be hosted by .se. I also look forward to seeing you at IETF 76 in Hiroshima, Japan, on 8-13 November 2009. That meeting will be hosted by WIDE. Scheduling information for the next IETF meetings may always be found here. I look forward to seeing you soon.