'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.''
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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, 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.
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.
Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees of the Internet Society is its governing body.
The current board of Trustees is composed of
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Fred Baker - Elections Committee Chair
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Hiroshi Esaki
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Patrik Fältström - Audit Committee
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Ted Hardie - Audit Committee
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Daniel Karrenberg - Chair
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Franck Martin
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Désirée Miloshevic
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Alejandro Pisanty
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Glenn Ricart - Treasurer, Audit Committee
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Lynn St. Amour - President/CEO
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Bill St.Arnaud
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Patrick Vande Walle - Nominations Committee Chair
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Baoping Yan
Officers
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Scott Bradner - Secretary
Chapters
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ISOC-AM - Armenia
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ISOC-AU - Australia
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ISOC Belgium vzw - Belgium
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Internet Society - Bulgaria
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ISOC-CAT - Catalonia
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ISOC-Chicago - Chicago
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ISOC-EC - Ecuador
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ISOC Finland - Finland
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ISOC-GAL - Galicia (Spain)
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Società Internet - Italy
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ISOC-IL - Israel
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IAjapan - Japan
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ISOC-Los Angeles - Los Angeles
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ISOC Luxembourg - Luxembourg
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ISOC-MU - Mauritius
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MISOC - Morocco
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isoc-ny - New York Metropolitan Area
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PICISOC - Pacific Islands
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ISOC Polska - Poland
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ISOC Québec - Québec, Canada
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ISOC-ZA - South Africa
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ISOC-ES - Spain
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ISOC-SE - Sweden
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ISOC Wallonie - Wallonia (Belgium)
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ISOC European Chapters Coordinating Council - Barcelona (Europe)
See also
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History of the Internet
External links
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The ISOC Web site
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IETF and ISOC by
Vint Cerf
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The International Anticybercrime Association Web site