Internet organizations
Encyclopedia
This is a list of Internet organizations, or organizations that play or played a key role in the evolution of the Internet by developing recommendations, standards
, and technology; deploying infrastructure and services; and addressing other major issues.
Standards organization
A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization , or standards setting organization is any organization whose primary activities are developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise producing technical standards that are...
, and technology; deploying infrastructure and services; and addressing other major issues.
Standards development and broad-based advocacy and educational organizations
- IAB (Internet Architecture BoardInternet Architecture BoardThe Internet Architecture Board is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society ....
) - IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers AuthorityInternet Assigned Numbers AuthorityThe Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System , media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and numbers...
) - ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)
- IESG (Internet Engineering Steering GroupInternet Engineering Steering GroupThe Internet Engineering Steering Group is a body composed of the Internet Engineering Task Force chair and area directors.It provides the final technical review of Internet standards and is responsible for day-to-day management of the IETF...
) - IETF (Internet Engineering Task ForceInternet Engineering Task ForceThe Internet Engineering Task Force develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standards bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite...
) - IRTF (Internet Research Task ForceInternet Research Task ForceThe Internet Research Task Force focuses on longer term research issues related to the Internet while the parallel organization, the Internet Engineering Task Force , focuses on the shorter term issues of engineering and standards making...
) - ISOC (Internet SocietyInternet SocietyThe Internet Society or ISOC is an international, nonprofit organization founded during 1992 to provide direction in Internet related standards, education, and policy...
) - NANOG (North American Network Operators' Group)
- NRO (Number Resource Organization)
- W3C (World Wide Web ConsortiumWorld Wide Web ConsortiumThe World Wide Web Consortium is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web .Founded and headed by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations which maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the...
)
Regional Internet Registries (RIRs)
- AfriNIC (African Network Information CentreAfriNICAfriNIC is the regional Internet registry for Africa. Its headquarters are in Ebene City, Mauritius. Adiel Akplogan is the registry's chief executive officer...
) - ARIN (American Registry for Internet NumbersAmerican Registry for Internet NumbersThe American Registry for Internet Numbers is the Regional Internet Registry for Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States. ARIN manages the distribution of Internet number resources, including IPv4 and IPv6 address space and AS numbers. ARIN opened its doors for...
) - APNIC (Asia-Pacific Network Information CentreAsia-Pacific Network Information CentreThe Asia Pacific Network Information Centre is the Regional Internet Registry for the Asia Pacific region.APNIC provides number resource allocation and registration services that support the global operation of the Internet...
) - LACNIC (Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre)
- RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination CentreRIPE NCCThe Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre is the Regional Internet Registry for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia...
)
United Nations bodies
- Internet Governance ForumInternet Governance ForumThe Internet Governance Forum is a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. It brings together all stakeholders in the internet governance debate, whether they represent governments, the private sector or civil society, including the technical and academic...
- World Summit on the Information SocietyWorld Summit on the Information SocietyThe World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis...
- Working Group on Internet GovernanceWorking Group on Internet GovernanceThe Working Group on Internet Governance was a United Nations multistakeholder Working group initiated after the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society first phase Summit in Geneva to agree on the future of Internet governance....
Research and education organizations
- Merit (Merit Network, Inc.Merit NetworkMerit Network, Inc., is a nonprofit member-governed organization providing high-performance computer networking and related services to educational, government, health care, and nonprofit organizations, primarily in Michigan...
) - NLR (National LambdaRailNational LambdaRailNational LambdaRail is a , high-speed national network infrastructure owned and operated by the U.S. research and education community that runs over fiber-optic lines, and is the first transcontinental 10-Gigabit Ethernet network...
) - Internet2 (aka University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development)
Commercial organizations
Commercial organizations that made early and significant contributions to the development of the Internet or services available on the Internet:- Amazon.comAmazon.comAmazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
- AOLAOLAOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
(America Online) - eBayEBayeBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
- FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- FlickrFlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
- GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
- LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
- Network SolutionsNetwork SolutionsNetwork Solutions, LLC is a technology company founded in 1979. The domain name registration business has become the most important division of the company. As of January 2009, Network Solutions managed more than 6.6 million domain names.-History:...
(NSI) - TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
- WikipediaWikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
- Yahoo!Yahoo!Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
- YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
Historical organizations
Organizations that played an important role in the development of the Internet in the past:- Advanced Network and ServicesAdvanced Network and ServicesAdvanced Network and Services was a United States non-profit organization formed in September 1990 by the NSFNET partners to run the network infrastructure for the soon to be upgraded NSFNET Backbone Service.-ANSNet:...
(ANS) - DARPA (U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
- InterNICInterNICThe Internet Network Information Center, known as InterNIC, was the Internet governing body primarily responsible for domain name and IP address allocations from 1972 until September 18, 1998 when this role was assumed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers...
- NSFNSFNetThe National Science Foundation Network was a program of coordinated, evolving projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation beginning in 1985 to promote advanced research and education networking in the United States...
(U.S. National Science Foundation) - PSINetPSINetPSINet was one of the first internet service providers , based in Northern Virginia, and a major player in the commercialization of the Internet until the company's bankruptcy in 2001 during the dot-com bubble and acquisition by Cogent Communications in 2002.-Growth:PSINet was founded in 1989 by...
- UUNetUUNETUUNET founded in 1987, was one of the largest Internet service providers and one of the nine Tier 1 networks. It was based in Northern Virginia and was the first commercial Internet service provider...