Today Wednesday June 20 2018 at 10am EDT (14::00 UTC) the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees will hold an Open Board Forum – a virtual meeting between the ISOC community and the ISOC Trustees which serves as an open platform to facilitate exchange of ideas, provide feedback and suggestions or ask any specific questions relating to the current and future direction of the organisation.
Last year, the Internet Society published a comprehensive study to better understand the forces of change that will shape the Internet over the next five to seven years: The 2017 Global Internet Report: Paths to Our Digital Future. By focusing attention on the significant potential of the Internet for innovation and sustainable development, but without denying or shirking the challenges it also introduces, the 2017 report has become a powerful tool in the global awareness and advocacy work of the Internet Society and its chapters.
We now want to work with you as our most important stakeholders on a new report that takes a closer look at one of those forces and how it may impact the future, namelyConsolidation in the Internet Economy. Understood as growing forces of concentration, vertical and horizontal integration, and fewer opportunities for market entry and competition, this topic includes the impact of consolidating forces on all stakeholders as well as on the Internet’s underlying and evolving technology.
We have selected this theme because findings from last year’s report, and developments since its release, indicated increasing concerns about a growing concentration of power in the Internet economy. They point to market and technical forces that may be driving consolidation at different ‘layers’ of the Internet, from traffic to communications providers to applications, as well as processes of vertical integration that allows for some companies to own the user experience at every stage and in an increasingly wide range of human activity. As users experience the Internet through a smaller number of providers, for example, there is the potential to restrict our access, choice and future ability to innovate. On the other hand, consolidation is not a new phenomenon but can be expected as markets and industries mature. To some, it is an evolution foremost characterized by lower prices and better services available to more people.
Today we are launching a survey available in English, French and Spanish seeking your input on this perceived trend of consolidation. Tell us your perspective; how it might be affecting you and your community, and what you foresee for the future of the Internet in the next five years.
Today, Thursday February 22 2018 at 1pm ET (18:00 UTC) the Internet Society Livestream Channel presents a webcast of Internet Society Webinar: GDPR: Novelties, Challenges and Opportunities earlier today. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which is going to enter into force on 25 May 2018 will bring fundamental changes to the Privacy and Data Protection scene on a global level. GDPR aims to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower data privacy of EU citizens and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy. The expected global impact of GDPR has triggered a worldwide discussion and many organizations both within and outside the EU are currently busy getting ready for 25 May, to make sure they are in compliance with the GDPR, while there is still an ongoing debate on many provisions. This Internet Society webinar provided our community with a better understanding of the big picture when it comes to GDPR, its global impact, novelties, challenges and opportunities. Speakers: Bojana Bellamy, President, Centre for Information Policy Leadership; Prof. Joe Cannataci, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy; Olivier Iteanu, Founder and Managing Partner, Iteanu Avocats; Nevena Ruzic, Assistant Secretary General at Information Commissioner Serbia. Moderator: Ceren Unal, Internet Society European Regional Bureau. The webcast will also be available on Facebook and will have open captioning.
All ISOC Chapters could participate in global Internet SocietyChapterthon 2017 with the theme ‘Digital Schools!‘. Chapters were challenged with developing a project within a timeline and budget to achieve a common goal for the development of education and the Internet. Oncethe projects were finalized, a community vote decided the best project which received a prize.
On Tuesday December 19 2017 the Internet Society held an Open Forum at the Internet Governance Forum in Geneva. Before the session went into breakout mode there were presentations from Kathy Brown, CEO & President, ISOC; Pearse O’Donohue, acting Director of the Future Networks Team in DG CONNECT, European Commission; Jane Coffin, Director, Development Strategy, ISOC; and Dawit Bekele, Regional Bureau Director for Africa, ISOC. Moderator was Frédéric Donck, Bureau Director for Europe, ISOC. The recording will be webcast live at 7pm today Wednesday December 27 2017 on the Internet Society Livestream Channel.
The Internet Society is inviting applications for its Fellowship to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The Fellowship programme allows technologists, engineers and researchers from emerging and developing economies to attend an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting.
As you know, the IETF is the Internet’s premier standards-making body, responsible for the development of protocols used in IP-based networks. IETF participants represent an international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers involved in the technical operation of the Internet and the continuing evolution of Internet architecture.
Fellowships will be awarded through a competitive application process. The current selection round is for the following:
* IETF 101, March 17-23, 2018, London, United Kingdom
Information of the IETF fellowship programme (including expectations, selection criteria, etc.) can be found at: bit.ly/2xtyGSE
The application links for the Fellowship are as follows:
Before applying for the Internet Society Fellowship to the IETF 101 Meeting in London, please read the self-assessment guide and ensure that you are able to satisfy the requirements of the checklist.
Applications will close on 3 December, 2017 and successful candidates will be notified on 22 December, 2017.
We encourage you to apply for this opportunity or pass this information about the programme to individuals in your network that have a keen interest in the open standards development activities of the IETF.
If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact Niel Harper at harper@isoc.org.
The Internet Society Board of Trustees congratulates our staff, our Chapters, and all of our members for coming together during theInternet Society’s 25th anniversary year to celebrate the past and to shape the future. This has been an important year with many accomplishments, including the global InterCommunity eventheld in September, which connected people from around the world and shone a spotlight on our work together. We believe this past year has set a foundation for the Internet Society to be an even more effective community and organisation going forward.
To prepare for the future, the Board — in consultation with the wider Internet Society community — refreshed our time-honoured and tested vision and mission statements. We believe the robust dialogue about our shared aspirations and goals reflected the passion and commitment of our community, and resulted in a reinvigorated statement of our vision and mission, consistent with our original commitment to an Internet that is for everyone. The updated Internet Society Mission Statement that we approved at our meeting is as follows:
The Internet Society supports and promotes the development of the Internet as a global technical infrastructure, a resource to enrich people’s lives, and a force for good in society.
Our work aligns with our goals for the Internet to be open, globally-connected, secure, and trustworthy. We seek collaboration with all who share these goals.
Together, we focus on:
Building and supporting the communities that make the Internet work;
Advancing the development and application of Internet infrastructure, technologies, and open standards; and
Advocating for policy that is consistent with our view of the Internet.
We also approved the organisation’s 2018 Action Plan, which focuses people and resources on innovative ways to make a difference in:
assuring Internet access for the hardest to reach places on the globe;
addressing security challenges emerging from the growing Internet of Things;
strengthening the global Internet’s routing system; and
promoting collaborative governance as tool to address a range important issues.
We also strongly agree with the 2018 Action Plan’s emphases on building a strengthened global Internet Society community and organisation, and on fostering key new initiatives that amplify the organisation’s ability to bring about change.
Finally, and importantly, as we work to #shapetomorrow and keep the Internet Society’s commitment to openness, transparency, and community-driven processes, we began exploring how to allocate the people, resources, and energies of the Internet Society for the future.
We agreed to work through a strategy for long term sustainability and impact. The Internet Society’s 2017 Global Internet Report: Paths to Our Digital Future, created through an extensive process of input from our community and beyond, will serve as a starting point for further dialogue to create a future-looking plan for addressing emerging issues of concern to our community.
It has been an eventful year, and we look forward to building on it in the coming years. We want to applaud our committed staff and its leadership for the good work they do every day to ensure that the Internet is for everyone.
The Internet Society is now inviting applications for the ‘Building Wireless Community Networks‘ online course via its Learning Management System (LMS) Inforum. This online course covers essential topics for effective planning and deployment of wireless community networks, and includes modules on the following:
In 2016, the Internet Society launched a project to take stock of the key forces of change that could impact the future of the Internet. A broad section of the Internet community was engaged via multiple surveys, interviews, and roundtables. The full report ‘Paths to our Digital Future‘ was released on September 18 2017.
Following the launch, in a global online meetup – InterCommunity 2017 – speaking from regional interactive online nodes, individuals were able to comment on the report’s findings. In NYC, Eli Noam – director of theColumbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) was one of those lending their thoughts. Video is below.
Today, Tuesday January 1 2019, at 7pm EST (00:00 UTC), in the seventh installment of the Internet Society Livestreaming‘s ‘12 Days of Streams‘ annual highlights we feature Internet Society President & CEO Andrew Sullivan kicking off the 2018 InterCommunity global meetup with an introduction to the Internet Society’s 2019 Action Plan. There will be 3 successive streams 1) English 2) French 3) Spanish.
Last year, the 
The Internet Society is inviting applications for its Fellowship to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The 
At the conclusion of its meeting in Singapore on November 17-19, 2017, the 
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