Retiring the Tao of the IETF

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Since its publication as [RFC1391] in 1993, The “Tao of the IETF” (“Tao”) has described the inner workings of IETF meetings and Working Groups, discussed organizations related to the IETF, and introduced the working processes to new participants. The Tao never was a formal IETF process document, but rather a community-developed and maintained informational overview. After the Tao was published as an RFC for 13 years, it was published as a webpage for over a decade following the process described in [RFC6722]. However, the Tao did not keep up with the changes in the processes of the community and the organization, and thereby ceased to be a reliable source of information. We gratefully want to acknowledge all the individuals who contributed to the Tao over the years. The changing nature of IETF participation, a better understanding of how to most effectively convey information to new participants, and experience with publishing the Tao as a webpage all suggest a new approach to collecting, updating, and communicating the information new participants need to engage in the work of the IETF successfully. This document formally retires the “Tao of the IETF” as a single standalone document.¶

2. Reasons for Retirement

In short, the breadth of topics covered in the Tao, the unpredictable and different schedule for updates to the topics, and the high overhead for revising and reviewing the content did not match the needs or preferences of the intended audience of the Tao.¶

3. Infrequent updates

The Tao was originally published as [RFC1391] in January 1993. In the following 17 years, four additional versions of the Tao were published as RFCs: [RFC1539] in October 1998, [RFC1718] in November 1994, [RFC3160] in August 2001, and [RFC4677] in September 2006. In August 2012, [RFC4677] was published to document the process for publishing the Tao as webpage so that it “can be updated more easily”. However, in the subseqent 11 years, only four additional versions were published. The length of the Tao meant that review and approval of the entire document took considerable effort and time, leading to very infrequent updates.¶

4. Unweildly format

The large, consolidated document format of the Tao made for a heavy investment by readers, in addition to the difficulty editors faced keeping pace with the changes required to keep it current. For example, the emergence of IETF Hackathons popularity with new participants prompted an update, however, that content was effectively buried in an already long document.¶

5. Changing participation modes

The original Tao aimed to welcome new participants to IETF meetings, as attendance grew rapidly along with the growth of the Internet in the 1990s. Other avenues for initial participation in the IETF emerged over the ensuing decades, the main focus of the Tao remained on in-person meeting participation. For example, remote participation in IETF meetings has become a much more significant aspect in the past few years.¶

6. New communications opportunities

• More focused guides, for example on IETF Hackathon participation, starting new work¶

• Alternative formats, e.g. multiple shorter documents, on-demand video¶

• New channels for communications, e.g. blog posts, improved Datatracker, podcasts, slack, etc.¶

7. Going forward plan

The content of the Tao has already been integrated into the website of the IETF, which is the main channel of communication for IETF newcomers and a general audience. The content is continuously kept up to date with a variety of media to serve different audiences. The IETF seeks to ensure that the website continues to address the needs of our ever-evolving community and potential newcomers.¶

8. Conclusion

In short, the Tao coverage of a wide range of topics, the unpredictable and different schedule for updates to the topics, and the high overhead for revising and reviewing the content, means that the document required a lot of effort to maintain and was commonly out of date, and thus did not serve its intended purpose.¶

9. Acknowledgements

The next phase of work to welcome new participants to the IETF builds on and gratefully acknowledges, everyone who has contributed to the Tao, and other efforts to help newcomers to the IETF become engaged and productive participants.¶

We acknowledgements of all past Tao of the IETF editors:¶

• Gary Scott Malkin¶

• Sue Harris¶

• Paul Hoffman¶

• Kathleen Moriarty¶

• Niels ten Oever¶

We also acknowledge all the work of the translators that made the Tao accessible to many different audiences.¶

10. Last Edition of the Tao

For archival purposes, the last edition of the Tao as published under the process described in RFC6722 is included below. Note that links to the Tao and archives below may not work in the future.¶

[Insert from here: https://github.com/ietf/tao/blob/main/Tao.md]¶

11. Security Considerations

This document has no security considerations.¶

12. IANA Considerations

This document has no IANA actions.¶

Authors' Addresses