Heather Flanagan
Pronouns: she/her

Heather Flanagan is Principal of Spherical Cow Consulting, where she advises organizations on digital identity, Internet governance, and standards development strategy. She previously served as RFC Series Editor from 2012 to 2019, overseeing the editorial and publication process for the IETF’s archival series.

Heather is currently a chair of the IETF SPICE Working Group and serves as Chair of HotRFC, supporting early-stage technical work and cross-community discussion. She is a frequent facilitator and contributor across various standards bodies, with a focus on helping technical communities navigate policy, governance, and emerging technology change.

Roles

Role Group Email
Chair Secure Patterns for Internet CrEdentials (spice) hlf@sphericalcowconsulting.com
Chair Hot RFC Lightning Talks (hotrfc) hlf@sphericalcowconsulting.com
Lead Hot RFC Lightning Talks (hotrfc) hlf@sphericalcowconsulting.com

RFCs (9)

RFC Date Title Cited by
RFC 6949 May 2013 RFC Series Format Requirements and Future Development 12 RFCs
RFC 7322 Sep 2014 RFC Style Guide 12 RFCs
RFC 7990 Dec 2016 RFC Format Framework 4 RFCs
RFC 7993 Dec 2016 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Requirements for RFCs 2 RFCs
RFC 7994 Dec 2016 Requirements for Plain-Text RFCs 2 RFCs
RFC 7997 Dec 2016 The Use of Non-ASCII Characters in RFCs 6 RFCs
RFC 8153 Apr 2017 Digital Preservation Considerations for the RFC Series 1 RFC
RFC 8700 Dec 2019 Fifty Years of RFCs 1 RFC
RFC 9720 Jan 2025 RFC Formats and Versions 1 RFC

Active Internet-Drafts (0)

Heather has no active Internet-Drafts as of 2026-02-04.

Expired Internet-Drafts (15)

(Excluding replaced Internet-Drafts.)

Internet-Draft Activity