Subject: Re: Was the ISOC the original PSO?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 10:35:15 -0800

*> 
  *>    - history:
  *>      - Though it existed informally for some time, the group 
  *>        was formally established by the IAB in 1986 with Phill 
  *>        Gross as the first Chair [4].
  *>      
  *> 

I hope no one takes this seriously as an account of IETF history.
It is correct only if you delete the leading clause and the word
"formally".

Bob Braden

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From: [email-masked] (Mike St. Johns)
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 12:01:36 -0800

Actually, its not even correct then.... the first chair of the IETF was
Mike Corrigan, not Phill Gross.  The direct ancestor of the IETF was a
group called GADS (Gateway Architecture and Data Structures) chaired by
Dave Mills.  The IETF was one of two orgs formed from splitting GADS - the
Internet Architecture Task Force and the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Dave retained the chair of the INARCH and Mike took IETF.  According to
Mike (when he descended upon the last GADS meeting to tell us about this),
this split was by the direction of the IAB (from which meeting he had just
come).  The IETF was formed to deal with the engineering problems of the
growing internet (and originally had a role much more like the FEPG -
Federal Engineering Planning Group - than todays standardization role).

The complete list of chairs for the IETF are :  Mike Corrigan, Phill Gross,
Paul Mockapetris, Fred Baker.

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From: [email-masked] (Mike St. Johns)
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 12:01:36 -0800

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From: Lixia Zhang <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 15:54:08 -0800

At 12:01 PM 12/5/98 , Mike St. Johns wrote:
>Dave retained the chair of the INARCH and Mike took IETF.

How time flies, all this still feels like just happened yesterday.
The first GADS meeting was in D.C. in Jan'85 (I recall Noel and I got lost
in a big snow storm on our way to the hotel the night before the meeting).
Phill was the secretary for GADS, after the split, he volunteered to serve
both groups (and soon became IETF chair as Mike did not stay on the spot
for too long).

>The IETF was formed to deal with the engineering problems of the
>growing internet ....

Before the '86 split GADS meeting had frequent clashes between different
interests, some wanted to talk more researchy issues while others wanted to
resolve burning operational problems.  The split was inevitable.

Lixia

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From: Lixia Zhang <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 15:54:08 -0800

Lixia