From the Economist [1]:
"On November 6th a meeting in Vancouver of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), an organisation which brings together the
scientists, technicians and programmers who built the internet in
the first place and whose behind-the-scenes efforts keep it running,
debated what to do about all this. A strong streak of West Coast
libertarianism still runs through the IETF, and the tone was mostly
hostile to the idea of omnipresent surveillance. Some of its members
were involved in creating the parts of the internet that spooks are
now exploiting. "I think we should treat this as an attack," said
Stephen Farrell, a computer scientist from Trinity College, Dublin,
in his presentation to the delegates. Discussion then moved on to
what should be done to thwart it.
As a sort of council of elders for the internet, the IETF has plenty
of soft power. But it has no formal authority. Because its standards
must be acceptable to users and engineers all over the world, it works
through a slow process of consensus-building. New standards, guidelines
and advice take months or years to produce."
There is a sort of council of elders of the internet around here. :-)
Regards,
-sm
1.
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21589383-stung-revelations-ubiquitous-surveillance-and-compromised-software/comments#comments