The Internet Society
The Internet Society (www.isoc.org) is a professional membership society formed in 1992. In 2002 it had more than 150 organization and 11,000 individual members in over 182 countries. It summarises its aims as
‘To provide leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organization home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) (see below)’.
A key aspect of their mission statement is:
‘To assure the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world’
Detailed points of its mission are that it aims to:
‘1. Facilitates open development of standards, protocols, administration and the technical infrastructure of the Internet
2. Supports education in developing countries specifically, and wherever
the need exists
3. Promotes professional development and opportunities for association to
Internet leadership
4. Provides reliable information about the Internet
5. Provides forums for discussion of issues that affect Internet evolution,
development and use -- technical, commercial, societal, etc.
6. Fosters an environment for international cooperation, community, and a
culture that enables self-governance to work
7. Serves as a focal point for cooperative efforts to promote the Internet as
a positive tool to benefit all people throughout the world
8. Provides management and coordination for on-strategy initiatives and
outreach efforts -- humanitarian, educational, societal, etc.’
It can be seen that although it focuses on technical issues of standards and protocols, it is also conscious of how these will affect global society.