IETF

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The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a large, open, international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. The IETF is open to any interested individual. It owns HTTP, FTP, NNTP, and other transport protocols.

The IETF works in much the same way as the other standards groups I've mentioned. The actual technical work of the IETF takes place in its working groups, which are organized by topic into several areas (for example, routing, transport, and security). These working groups handle much of their work via mailing lists. The IETF holds meetings three times each year.

For a specification to become an IETF standard, it must undergo a period of development and several iterations of review by the Internet community. It then undergoes revisions based on comments. After this process, the appropriate body within the IETF adopts the specification as a standard and publishes it. One of the standards the IETF owns is SOAP. I'll discuss SOAP in depth in Chapter 8.