Who Runs the Internet?

edited by: jim.cerny@unh.edu

The Internet is unlike most hierarchical organizations we deal with in life, because there is no one "in charge" as the single top authority. But there is order as well as chaos:

Yes, it's true. No one is in charge of the Internet.

Even Larry Landweber, president of the Internet Society, admits that. "But anarchy? That is incorrect," he said of the other popular belief -- that no one maintains law and order on the 'net.

In reality, a number of dedicated volunteer groups keeps the Internet working through their efforts at standards development and consensus building. <ComputerWorld, January 2, 1996, p. 12.>

Groups that contribute to the Internet architecture and use.

Internet2 Project (UCAID)

for development of advanced network services for higher education and research and the VBNS highspeed backbone on which it will run. See also Abilene and QBone and VBNS+. And there is the Canadian CA*net 3 which is discussed in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Internet Society

Concerned with the evolution of the Internet and its social, political, and technical issues.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

Develops technical standards for the Internet.

Internet Architecture Board (IAB)

Oversees Internet protocols and procedures and the creation of Internet standards.

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)

Coordinates assignment of protocol numbers. See ICANN (below) for domain name name assignments.

Commercial Internet Exchange Association (CIX)

Nonprofit trade association for public data internetworking service providers.

CommerceNet

Nonprofit group that works to accelerate the application of electronic commerce on the Internet.

W3C, World Wide Web Consortium

An industry consoritum run by MIT that develops standards for the evolution of the Web. Registrars ...

ICANN

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (supersedes some IANA functions) and list of Accredited Registrars.

InterNIC at Network Solutions

Directory and Databases.

Domain Name Buyers Guide.

And ...

Internet responsiveness or weather as maps from MIDS.

Internet Domain Survey

run in January and July.

IP Next Generation (IPng).