The Internet Engineering Task Force, or IETF, held its first meeting in San Diego in January 1986.
The inaugural meeting took place on January 16–17, 1986, at Linkabit’s San Diego facilities. It was attended by only 21 researchers funded by the U.S. government. The meeting continued work associated with the earlier Gateway Algorithms and Data Structures Task Force, while the IETF focused on near-term Internet engineering and technology transfer.
The IETF develops and documents many of the protocols that allow the Internet to interoperate, including standards related to TCP/IP, routing, transport, security, and applications. It is not a government agency and does not “run” the Internet. Participation is open, and the organization has no formal membership roster; standards are developed through working groups, discussion, review, and rough consensus.
The tiny first meeting contrasts sharply with later gatherings. Non-government vendors began attending by the fourth meeting in October 1986, and working groups were introduced at the fifth meeting in February 1987. IEEE, W3C, and ICANN perform different roles and are not the answer to this historical question.