Internet Standards and the Request for Comment (RFC) Process
The precursors of the modern Internet were diminutive networks developed and run by a small group of computer scientists and engineers. These technologists knew that developing open, widely adopted standards would be essential to the eventual growth of the Internet and the TCP/IP protocol suite. But there was no formalized standards development mechanism back then.
Standardization was achieved largely through building consensus through discussion about new technologies and protocols. If someone had a proposal for a new protocol or technology, or an idea for a change to an existing one, that person would create a memorandum describing it and circulate it to others. Since the goal was to ...
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