This repository contains the authoritative content of key pages from www.ietf.org in order to allow the community to send PRs for that content. It also contains the documentation of the navigation of the site and a discussion on issues and proposed changes.

Audiences

The www.ietf.org website is the public-facing "front door" for the IETF and aims to reflect and advance the position of the IETF as the premiere Internet standards organization that gathers a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. This website aims to serve three audiences:

Active IETF Participants Individuals who are already actively participating in the IETF: The redesigned IETF website should be a more effective tool for "getting the work of the IETF done".

New or Potential IETF Participants Individuals who could participate in and contribute to the IETF: The revamped IETF website should help candidate participants become active contributors.

Non-participants looking to find out more about the IETF These individuals include policy makers, managers of current or potential IETF participants, and C-level executives from the organizations of IETF participants: The revamped website should provide members of this audience a better understanding of the IETF's role as the Internet's premier standards organization.

Types of content

These are the types of content that we are working on in this repository:

Type	Description	Audience
Summary	A very short piece (generally no more than 1500 words) that tells people that the subject exists	General public
Introduction	Several paragraphs that very briefly explain the key points about a subject	Potential and new participants
Guide	Detailed piece that provides the details of a subject but does not include any arcana or details that are only relevant to a small subset of readers	New and established participants

Published content

The following have all been published. For now, that is a manual process whereby the content is pasted into the website CMS, but it is hoped that this will be automated in the future. Unless stated otherwise, you are free to submit a PR on any of this content.

• Introduction to the IETF. This is published as a website page. By necessity, this page has content in it that is repeated elsewhere, but excessive detail should be avoided.
• Guide to IETF Meetings. This is a published as a website page. It is written largely for those new to IETF meetings and is intentionally a long read. Some elements are intentionally just brief references to other pages (e.g. Meeting Technology, Support for New Participants).
• Support for new participants. This is published as a section of a page with the rest of that page including specific information about the upcoming IETF meeting.

Working content

The following are all being worked on and may change or be reorganised at any point.

• Introductions:
  • Introduction to Tools and Services. This is largely complete and just waiting for a change to the menu structure so that it can be published.
  • Introduction to the structure of the IETF. This is largely complete, but before it can be published, significant clearing up of the existing groups' content is needed.
  • Introduction to the work of the IETF. This is largely complete as an extended version of the text that appears in the Introduction to the IETF but it is not yet clear how this fits with other pages.
• Guides:
  • Guide to bringing new work to the IETF. This is drafted and now going through review and update.
  • Guide to IETF Working Groups. This is drafted and now going through review.
  • Guide to being effective in the IETF. This is a collection of relevant text drawn from multiple sources, still to be organised.
• Other:
  • RFCs. This is a collection of relevant text, drawn from multiple sources, lots of it. No decision has been made on how to pitch this - either as an introduction, or a comprehensive guide. Some (much?) of this text may be better on the RFC Editor site

Relationship to previous content

• Tao of the IETF. The Tao has now evolved into the new set of documents above, which are in many cases largely drawn from Tao content and covering the same subject matter, though written differently.
• Informal Guide to the Standard Process. This will, if possible, be incorporated into the new content.

Content style guide

Please refer to the styleguide for guidance about text.

The following general guidance is applied to this content.

1. Give coverage only to what really matters without going into details on everything, even if that means leaving some things unexplained or only vaguely touched on. More detail can come in a more specific document. Controlling repetition across the whole website is crucial.

2. While some of this content is aimed specifically at those new to the IETF, avoid constantly declaring that as it actually puts people off by labelling them and boxing them into a pre-defined role. Better just to tell people the facts and let them decide how they fit in.

3. Wherever possible, say "this is what X is," rather than the old Tao approach of "you might think X is …, but no it’s actually … !!".

4. Move almost all of the side remarks, insights into culture, memes, etc. into the separate document on being effective, while still trying to capture the intent where needed. It’s not that they’re without value, it’s just that they have a time and a place where they are most effective, and that is when someone is thinking about how they participate, not when they are learning the facts of how things work.

5. Limit the number of external references. There’s a balance between referencing sources and providing additional information, and distracting people from the current document.