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.

History

The ISOC was officially formed in 1992 to provide a corporate structure to support the ad-hoc bodies active in the growth of the Internet.

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, so called "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.

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.

The ISOC now also sponsors an annual conference (the INet), along with various publications and training seminars.

The ISOC has joint offices in Virginia, United States and Geneva, Switzerland.

Chapters

• PICISOC

See Also

• History of the Internet

External links

• The ISOC Web site
• IETF and ISOC by Vint Cerf