According to The Tao of the IETF, "The Internet Engineering Task Force is a loosely self-organized group of people who contribute to the engineering and evolution of Internet technologies. It is the principal body engaged in the development of new Internet standard specifications...

"Its mission includes:

• Identifying, and proposing solutions to, pressing operational and technical problems in the Internet;
• Specifying the development or usage of protocols and the near-term architecture to solve such technical problems for the Internet;
• Making recommendations tothe Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) regarding the standardization of protocols and protocol usage in the Internet;
• Facilitating technology transfer from the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) to the wider Internet community; and
• Providing a forum for the exchange of information within the Internet community between vendors, users, researchers, agency contractors, and network managers."

As described in The Tao of the IETF, "The IETF is not a traditional standards organization, although many specifications are produced that become standards. The IETF is made up of volunteers, many of whom meet three times a year to fulfill the IETF mission.

"There is no membership in the IETF. Anyone may register for and attend any meeting. The closest thing there is to being an IETF member is being on the IETF or Working Group mailing lists ... . This is where the best information about current IETF activities and focus can be found."

"Rough consensus and running code": According to The Tao of the IETF, "The IETF is unusual in that it exists as a collection of happenings, but is not a corporation and has no board of directors, no members, and no dues...

"The IETF is run by rough consensus, and it is the [Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)] that decides if a [Working Group] has come up with a result that has a real consensus. Because of this, one of the main reasons that the IESG might block something that was produced in a [Working Group] is that the result did not really gain consensus in the IETF as a whole, that is, among all of the Working Groups in all areas."

The work of the IETF has been fundamental to the smooth functioning of the Internet over the years. While concentrated on sound design from an engineering perspective, this diverse group of contributors cannot help but perform a governance role.

Perhaps because of their sheer number and great variety, the IETF’s initiatives affect all levels of the Internet, from the bottom transport layer to the uppermost application layer. They also, therefore, affect almost every Net governance area. An initiative as seemingly unimportant as the standardization of packet switching on particular network hardware could potentially influence data collection standards. Network resolution methods could enable or inhibit user privacy. Anti-SPAM technologies at the server level could completely change business communications. From these basic standards spring larger, more easily understood initiatives. The computer code snowballs into law, as it were.