Internet Society
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Internet Society or ISOC is an international organization that promotes Internet use and access. It states that its mission is:
- to assure the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world. [1]
Its members are both individuals (for whom membership is currently free--membership is open to anyone), and also corporations, organizations, governments, and universities.
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[edit] History
The ISOC was officially formed in 1992, with one of its purposes being to provide a corporate structure to support the Internet standards process.
Many of the driving forces in the Internet arena, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), were (and still remain) very informal organizations from a legal perspective. There was a growing need for financial support and organization structures. The Internet Society was incorporated as a non-profit educational organization.
Like many functions and organizations active in the Internet, growth and evolution have been so rapid that no single perspective gives an understanding of the Society. From one view, the ISOC is the parent corporation of the IETF; as such all IETF Request for Comments documents, including those RFCs which describe "Internet Standards", are copyrighted by ISOC (although freely available to anyone, including non-members, at no charge). From another perspective, the ISOC grew out of the IETF, to support those functions that require a corporate form rather than simply the ad-hoc approach of the IETF.
[edit] The ISOC today
Its major standards efforts are directed through the IETF and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). Some functions of both organizations are supported by shared resources, known as the Secretariat.
ISOC today is the parent company for the Public Interest Registry, which runs the .ORG top-level domain.
The ISOC used to sponsor an annual conference (the INET), along with various publications and training seminars.
The ISOC has joint offices in Virginia, United States and Geneva, Switzerland.
[edit] Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees of the Internet Society is its governing body.
The current board of Trustees is composed of
- Fred Baker - Elections Committee
- Patrik Fältström
- Erik Huizer
- Daniel Karrenberg - Chair
- Veni Markovski - Served until January 2007
- Franck Martin
- Désirée Miloshevic
- Glenn Ricart - Treasurer, Audit Committee
- Stephen Squires
- Lynn St. Amour - President/CEO
- Bill St.Arnaud - Nominations Committee
- Patrick Vande Walle
- Baoping Yan
Officers
- Scott Bradner - Secretary
[edit] Chapters
- ISOC-AM - Armenia
- ISOC-AU - Australia
- ISOC Belgium vzw - Belgium
- Internet Society - Bulgaria
- ISOC-CAT - Catalonia
- ISOC-Chicago - Chicago
- ISOC-EC - Ecuador
- ISOC-GAL - Galicia (Spain)
- Società Internet - Italy
- ISOC-IL - Israel
- IAjapan - Japan
- ISOC-Los Angeles - Los Angeles
- ISOC Luxembourg - Luxembourg
- ISOC-MU - Mauritius
- MISOC - Morocco
- isoc-ny - New York Metropolitan Area
- PICISOC - Pacific Islands
- ISOC Polska - Poland
- ISOC Québec - Québec, Canada
- ISOC-ZA - South Africa
- ISOC-ES - Spain
- ISOC-SE - Sweden
- ISOC Wallonie
- ISOC European Chapters Coordinating Council - Barcelona (Europe)
