An analysis of IETF activities using mailing lists and social media

Abstract

The Internet Engineering Task Force is an open organization that produces Internet Standards. In this paper we look at Twitter and IETF mailing lists to answer questions on IETF participation and social media usage and IETF reaction to societal events: Are Internet Standards discussed on Twitter? Who is involved in the process? Do external events like Snowden revelations in 2013 correlate with related IETF activities? To answer this, we look in particular at security-related activities at the IETF like in the TLS working group. With respect to the Snowden leaks, we quantify the impact in terms of increase in activity and contributors in related areas.