Seeking to expand on the International Academic Net Workshops (IANW; known colloquially as the “Landweber Workshops”) and broaden the international networking community in an open forum, Lawrence Landweber teams with Jun Murai and Frode Greisen to initiate the INET conferences, with the first one taking place in Greisen’s home country of Denmark. It is attended by 385 participants from 58 countries.

The closing plenary session of the first INET conference serves as the forum for Vint Cerf’s announcement of the Internet Society’s founding, based on a document signed by Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn, and Lyman Chapin. In his remarks, Cerf also announces that the INET Conferences will henceforth be conducted under Internet Society auspices and become the forum for the Internet Society's annual meetings, with the next one to take place in Kobe, Japan. An oral history of the Internet Society's founding, as remembered by Cerf, Kahn, Chapin, and many of the original Board members can be found here.

ISOC co-founder Robert Kahn’s Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) provides the fledgling Internet Society with its first home and secretariat, with EDUCOM providing additional staff and support.

Jon Postel manages to beat out Stephen Wolff in a race to write the first $70 check for ISOC membership dues, receiving member number 1314159 (one, followed by the first six digits of π) and becoming the Internet Society’s first individual member.

Following more than a year of preliminary discussions and six months of preparatory activities following the initial announcement at INET ’91 in Copenhagen, the Internet Society takes official form with the start of a new year, with Vint Cerf as president of the Board of Trustees—a position roughly equivalent, in ISOC’s previous structure, to the president and CEO position that exists today.

Though the Internet Society’s founding ambition to publish a scholarly journal has remained unfulfilled, ISOC has generated a number of publications. The first, Internet Society News, debuts with a cover that asks “Where in the World is the Internet?” and features an article on international connectivity by Larry Landweber, along with reports on “Network Scenarios & Experiences” from around the world.

Robert Kahn (CNRI)
Juergen Harms (RARE)
Michael Roberts
Charles Brownstein
Lyman Chapin
Ira Fuchs
Frode Greisen
Geoff Huston
Tomaz Kalin
Kenneth King (Educom)
Lawrence Landweber
Kees Neggers
Anthony Rutkowski

The second INET conference—the first conerence conducted under Internet Society auspices—proves to be, in the words of INET co-founder Lawrence Landweber, “a groundbreaking event in the development of the Internet.” In addition to sessions dealing with networking technology and with networking growth and challenges around the world, the conference features prescient discussions of network policy, as it touches on issues such as privacy and civil liberties, and network applications such as online education. It also serves as the forum for the inaugural meetings of the Internet Society and the IAB’s first meeting as the Internet Architecture Board.

INET ’92 in Kobe serves as the forum for the Internet Society’s first formal meetings. The Internet Society’s inaugural board meeting features, among other actions, execution of the final version of the original ISOC Charter, and the Board’s unanimous approval of the amended IAB Charter—which brings the IAB’s activities into the Internet Society and changes its name of that organization from the “Internet Activities Board” to the “Internet Architecture Board.”

The first Board meeting also helps lay the groundwork for Internet Society chapters, as board member and General Conference Chair Hideo Aiso reports that there is great interest in Japan in forming a chapter of the Internet Society. The Board agrees to form a working group “to explore the manner in which such local organizations could be formed and function in way that is productive for the groups and contributes to the overall health of the Society at the same time.”

The minutes of the IAB meeting at INET ’92 in Kobe contain two items that, taken together, will have repercussions for years to come.

The first concerns the vote by the Internet Society Board of Trustees “to accept a recommendation from the Internet Activities Board to bring the IAB and all of its activities into the Internet Society”, whereby “[T]he IAB will serve as a technical advisory group of the ISOC, with the new name ‘Internet Architecture Board’.  The IETF [Internet Engineering Task Force] will continue to pursue standards-setting and other engineering activities under this new umbrella, and the IRTF [Internet Research Task Force] will continue to pursue research questions of importance to the Internet.”

The second item is a discussion of the impending exhaustion of the IPv4 address space. The repercussions from this meeting and the actions taken there are among the factors that will lead to the Process for Organization of Internet Standards Working Group (POISED) within the IETF, which, via various incarnations, will ultimately alter the relationship between the IAB and the IETF and clarify the relationship between ISOC and the IETF, among other outcomes.

In response to a number of issues that first arose at INET ’92 in Kobe, including those involving the relationship between the Internet Society, the IAB (Internet Architecture Board), the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), and the IRTF (Internet Research Task Force), the IETF establishes the first Process for Organization of Internet Standards Working Group (POISED). In June 1994, RFC 1640 offers an account by Working Group Chair Steve Crocker of the factors that led to the Working Group’s formation and of its work in progress.

The non-profit Network Startup Resource Center is formally founded to develop and deploy Internet networking technology to dozens of countries throughout the world. With shared goals in the realms of Internet outreach and development, the Internet Society finds a partner in the NSRC for conducting workshops to train engineers in developing countries in TCP/IP—the Developing Country Workshops that begin in the days leading up to INET ’93 and continue as a prelude to subsequent INET conferences. 

The Internet Society files articles of incorporation as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation in Washington, DC.

An outgrowth of the work done by the Internet Research Task Force’s (IRTF) Privacy and Security Research Group (PSRG), the  Internet Society’s first Network and Distributed System Symposium (NDSS) is held in San Diego, California. It becomes an annual event that, in keeping with the first NDSS, is generally held in February in San Diego. This three-day conference brings together innovative and forward-thinking members of the Internet community including leading-edge security researchers and implementers, globally-recognized security-technology experts, and users from both the private and public sectors who design, develop, exploit, and deploy the technologies that define network and distributed system security.

In the days leading up to INET ’93, George Sadowsky conducts the Internet Society’s first Developing Country Workshop (DCW) at Stanford University. The workshop, for which Internet Society Vice President of Conferences Larry Landweber authorizes a $50,000 grant from the Internet Society budget, provides 126 individuals from 67 countries with hands-on training in basic connectivity, building and managing TCP/IP networks, and network navigation and resource discovery. From 1993 to 2001, over 1,300 participants from 94 countries attend the DCWs. Virtually all developing counties that connect to the Internet between 1993 and 2002 will do so with the help of people trained at these workshops. Additionally, many of the participants go on to found or help found Internet Society chapters in their home countries. 

Read an Internet Hall of Fame article on 2013 inductee George Sadowsky and the Developing Country Workshops here.

The third INET conference—and second under Internet Society auspices—is held just north of Silicon Valley, home to much of the pioneering work on the Internet and its associated technologies. As Internet Society Vice President for Conferences Lawrence Landweber observes in his welcoming remarks, INET ’93 “is the first global networking conference to take place since the existence and availability of networks and their services have become known to the general public.” The conference features an expansion of sessions on Internet technologies amid parallel tracks on Network Technology, Network Engineering, Application Technology, User Applications, Policy Issues, and Regional Issues.

The first of the Developing Country Workshops created by George Sadowsky takes place at Stanford University in the days leading up to INET ’93. 

Originally established in 1992 to administer address space and to facilitate communication, business, and culture using Internet technologies, APNIC is publicly recognized by IANA as a RIR in 1994. APNIC has memoranda of understanding with the Internet Society and a number of ISOC Chapters for a variety of partnerships that include mutual support of organizational functions as well as policy and educational activities.

With Resolution 1994-13, the Internet Society Board of Trustees establishes the principles that will enable the growth of Internet Society Chapters, which will consist of local groups of Internet Society members and will go on to play a significant role in advancing the Internet Society's values globally. As of December 2013, there will be 100 Internet Society Chapters throughout the world.

Chapters bring together individual members who share an interest and belief in the Internet Society’s principles and mission and who are committed to furthering the Internet Society’s goals and objectives in their local environments. Chapter members form communities that assume responsibility for a variety of programmes and activities, while also comprising a larger, global community—as many graduates of Internet Society workshops and training programs also help found Internet Society Chapters of their own.

INET ‘94 is organized jointly by the Internet Society and Internet Society Charter Member RARE(Réseaux Associés pour la Recherche Européenne; now TERENA). In addition to the presentation of technical papers and reports on networking progress, challenges, and approaches from around the world, a number of presentations reflect the growing interest in the World Wide Web at a time when traffic on the Web is doubling every two-to-three months. Topics include an evaluation of the “radically new media” represented by the World Wide Web and HTML, a look at the direction that commercial services are taking in relation to the emerging “Infobahn (or Information Highway)”, and a proposal for extending the Web to “support platform independent virtual reality”, via a proposed VR markup language (VRML).

The first Internet Society chapter is founded in Japan by, among others, Toru Takahashi, who is instrumental in bringing the Internet to Japan and promoting it throughout Asia in the 1990s. The chartering of the Internet Society Japan Chapter fulfills Internet Society Trustee Hideo Aiso’s statement at INET ’92 in Kobe that there was “great interest in Japan in forming a chapter of the Internet Society.” 

The Internet Society US Washington, DC Chapter becomes the Internet Society’s second chapter, and the first of what will grow to become five Internet Society chapters in the United States. 

The Internet Society moves to a new model of governance, whereby “[T]he Chairman of the Society, with the approval of the affirmative vote of at least a majority of the members of the Board of Trustees then in office, shall have the authority to appoint the President of the Society, who shall function as the Society's Chief Executive Officer and shall be responsible for the day-to-day conduct of the Society's activities. The President shall perform his duties subject to the direction of the Board of Trustees, and for such compensation and on other terms and conditions as the Board of Trustees shall determine.” The following year, in June 1996, the Board appoints Donald Heath as the Internet Society’s first President under this definition.

Founding Board Member and Internet Society Vice President for Conferences Lawrence Landweber becomes president of the Internet Society when founding president Vint Cerf steps down from that position and in the interim before the Board establishes the current, employed position of president and CEO. Landweber’s tenure coincides with the NSF’s decision to stop subsidizing the registration of domain names for all but the .EDU and .GOV domains, and Network Solutions, Inc.’s corresponding institution of a fee for domain name registration; while president, he initiates the Internet Society's proposal to revise the governance of the Domain Name System (DNS).

The Internet Society Israel Chapter is co-founded by Dov Winer, Doron Shikmoni, and Hank Nussbacher, among others, with the goal of enabling Internet connection for Israel’s academic community. Though its membership has a strong technical foundation, it makes a conscious effort early on to focus on the Internet’s implications for society, as relating to business, to education, and—particular to Israel—connection with the worldwide Jewish diaspora. The Israel Chapter also engages in community outreach in issues such as access and safeguards for youth on the Internet, and establishes strong contacts with the Israeli parliament, inform the creation of a blueprint for an information society in Israel. Today, the Israel Chapter’s focus on the confluence of the Internet and Society remains strong.

Winer, who played an instrumental role in Israel’s transition to the Internet, was an early member of the Internet Society; in 1992, he had written a letter to Internet Society President Vint Cerf suggesting that the Internet Society establish chapters. After meeting Palestinian Saleem Zugbi at INET ’94 in Prague, Winer also helped prevail upon Jon Postel to provide a ccTLD (country code top-level domain) for the Palestinian State.

Expanding on the vision of Internet Society News, ISOC debuts its bimonthly, four-color membership magazine, OnTheInternet, in 1995. Helmed by Wendy Rickard, OnTheInternet and its online version, eOTI, position the Internet Society as a thought leader at a time when the Internet’s inluence is broadening beyond academia and into every aspect of how society works, learns, plays, and even loves.

The magazine attracts such luminaries as John Perry Barlow, Dorothy Denning, Geoff Huston, John Klensin, Veni Markovsky, Janet Perry, Larry Press, Madanmohan Rao, George Sadowsky, and Nicholas Trio--who, among others, serve as contributors for features, columns, book reviews, technical briefs, and social commentary. Twice-yearly issues devoted to emerging Nations and Public Policy underscore the Internet Society’s increasing inluence on the global stage and earn the publication both industry accolades and publishing awards. OnTheInternet and eOTI continue through their January/February 2002 issues.

The Internet Society Argentina Chapter becomes the first Internet Society Chapter in South America.

The ISOC Switzerland Geneva Chapter is founded by Pierre Andre Rion, Rosa Delgado, and Stéphane Koch, who serves as the first president. It is rejuvenated on May 9, 2012 as the ISOC Switzerland Chapter by Bernie Hoeneisen and Roxana Radu, an ISOC Next Generation Leaders (NGL) program member.

In its original incarnation, the Switzerland Geneva Chapter is very active, particularly in Internet training and in helping its members run special interest groups such as the Geneva Developing Countries Special Interest Group (DevSIG). It plays a significant role in helping to make INET ’98 Geneva a tremendous success and is also involved, in May 2002, in the preparatory work for the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in Geneva in 2003.

The fifth INET conference carries the theme "The Internet: Towards a Global Information Infrastructure” and takes place during a time of extraordinary growth and change in the Internet, as noted by Internet Society President Vint Cerf in his welcoming remarks. The NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network) had just been decommissioned as the main US backbone of the Internet, and within a few months the NSF will no longer subsidize the registration of most domain names. Against this backdrop, a rapidly increasing number of public and private institutions worldwide depend on the reliability and security of the Internet. The impressive lineup of sessions, tutorials, workshops, and demonstrations at INET ’95 reflects the growing interest in the Internet and the World Wide Web in the realms of education, business, and application design--and the technical challenges that attend these developments.
 

The first APRICOT is held in Singapore, with the goal of providing a forum for the region’s key Internet builders—technicians, managers, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers—to learn from their peers and other leaders in the Internet community around the world and to master the skills necessary to build and operate increasingly complex network systems. Over the years, the Internet Society builds a strong partnership with APRICOT and the Asia & Pacific Internet Association (APIA), which assumes support for APRICOT in 2003.

Future APRICOT conferences become the site of ISOC and IAB meetings and, in the late 2000s, ISOC establishes the APRICOT Fellowship programme, which provides financial assistance for Asian engineers to participate in APRICOT’s annual meetings and training sessions. Internet Society President and CEO Lynn St. Amour delivers the APRICOT 2013 Keynote Address, reaffirming ISOC’s “strong commitment” to the Asia-Pacific region and issuing a call for participation in support of the Internet’s multi-stakeholder model.

A former executive at Transaction Network Services (TNS) and MCI, Donald Heath becomes President and CEO of the Internet Society at a pivotal time in the organization and for the Internet itself. Serving in that role from 1996-2001, he leads a broad spectrum of activities focused on the growth of the Internet and associated technologies--including the Internet’s international growth, availability, and evolution—while managing the Internet Society’s responsibilities for facilitating and coordinating Internet-related programs and initiatives around the world.

Heath’s time at the Internet Society coincides with the continuing transition of the Internet from a US government-sponsored research network to the international, multi-stakeholder model that prevails today. Under Heath’s leadership, the Internet Society plays a role in shaping this transition, providing important input to the US government during the process that leads to the US National Telecommunication & Information Administration’s (NTIA) Statement of Policy on Management of Internet Names and Addresses, which ultimately leads to the formation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Heath also serves as Chair of the International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC), which plays an influential role in spurring broader conversation about Internet self-governance during this period.

Following the efforts of the Internet Engineering Task Force’s original Process for the Organization of Internet Standards Working Group (POISED), which concluded in 1994, the IETF formed the POISED95 working group in July 1995 to resolve, among other issues, the link between the IETF and the Internet Society. POISED95 concludes in March 1996, and the  documents that come out of that process—RFC 2026, RFC 2027, RFC 2028, and RFC 2031—contribute to the clarification, formalization, and codification of the relationship between ISOC, the IAB, and the IETF.

In a significant change for the Internet Society Board of Trustees that reflects a desire for greater democracy in its proceedings, Charter Members RARE (Réseaux Associés pour la Recherche Européenne; now TERENA), Educom (now EDUCAUSE), and CNRI (Corporation for National Research Initiatives) reach unanimity in agreeing not to exercise their veto power in a series of Board votes that amend ISOC By-Laws pertaining to Board appointments, elections, and composition. As a result of this amendment process, ISOC’s Charter Members relinquish their privilege of permanent status on the Board.

In addition to focusing on worldwide issues of Internet networking, INET ’96 places an increased emphasis on the social, cultural, and linguistic impacts of Internet technology. Among the issues examined are the Internet’s potential for social transformation, the Internet’s role in reshaping commerce, and the ways in which new teaching technologies and applications are changing the nature of education. The conference also opens with a primary and second school workshop that brings together kindergarten through secondary school innovators from around the world. 

The IAHC is formed amid concern about the future of the Domain Name System (DNS) and in response to a proposal by Board Member and International Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) administrator Jon Postel to create a host of new top-level domains (TLDs) and registries. Chaired by Internet Society President Don Heath, it includes representatives from the Internet Society, the IAB, and IANA, as well as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and several international organizations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The International Ad Hoc Committee dissolves on May 1, 1997, producing a gTLD MoU (generic Top Level Domain Memorandum of Understanding) as its final report, to which 226 entities—including the Internet Society —are signatories. The IAHC contributes to a broad-based, international discussion of Internet governance and related issues (particularly with respect to the DNS) during a transitional era in the Internet’s history.

The Internet Society Sweden Chapter is formed and recognized by ISOC. Founded by some 30 members that elect Östen Frånberg as its first chairman of the board.

INET ’97 takes place during the beginnings of what will become known as the “dot-com boom” and on the cusp of dramatic changes in the domain name space. The conference’s keynote speaker is Ira Magaziner, appointed by President Clinton in 1996 to head an interagency task force to develop guidelines for the US government’s Internet policy; the task force’s report, titled A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce, will be released within a week of the conference’s conclusion, on 1 July 1997. 

In an effort to grant the editor of the Request for Comments (RFC) series greater autonomy, ISOC assumes sole funding of the editor function, performed at the time by Jon Postel.

In response to US President Bill Clinton’s mandate to privatize the Domain Name System (DNS), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the US Department of Commerce, issues a “green paper” proposing changes and improvements to the DNS. The Internet Society, the IAB, and the International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC, Chaired by ISOC President Don Heath) provide important input that informs the creation of both this document and its revision, the final “white paper”.

After a period of public comment on its draft “green paper” on proposed changes and improvements to the Domain Name System (DNS), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the US Department of Commerce, issues its final “white paper”. The final proposal issued by the NTIA establishes a framework for transition of the DNS from US government control to the present multi-stakeholder model and reflects the input, advice, and broader conversations spurred by the Internet Society, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC). Formally titled “Statement of Policy on Internet Names and Addresses," the white paper forth the principles for the formation of a not-for-profit, self-regulating body; the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will ultimately be formed along these lines.

The 1998 INET conference proves to be a great success, with high attendance for both the regular sessions and the Developing Country Workshop reflecting Geneva’s status at the time as home to one of the largest and most active Internet Society chapters. With the increasing intersection of the Internet and World Wide Web with all areas of society, INET ’98 sees a greater focus on legal policy, as well as the addition of a Health track of presentations, discussions, and workshops.

The Internet Society opens an office in Geneva following the highly successful 1998 INET conference. Created with an aim towards increasing the Internet Society's international profile, input, and reach, the Internet Society's Geneva office has only two employees at first, with future President and CEO Lynn St. Amour serving as Executive Director for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, an activity run from that location.

Given the presence in Geneva of international organizations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the proximity of EU headquarters in Brussels, the Internet Society's Geneva office tends to have a significant focus on policy matters; nonetheless, the Internet Society is run as a single, global organization with its president and CEO dividing time between both offices.

After the death of Jon Postel in October 1998, the Internet Society Board votes to establish a fund for an award to be given each year in his honor. The Jonathan B. Postel Service Award is presented annually—marked by a $20,000 cash prize and a presentation crystal—to an individual or organization that has made outstanding contributions in service to the data communications community, with particular emphasis on candidates who have supported and enabled others in addition to their own specific actions. In keeping with this description, in 1999 Jon Postel is the first to be recognized, posthumously, with the award that bears his name.

Following efforts begun in 1998 to establish a chapter in Italy, ISOC Italy Chapter is chartered in 1999. Among the earliest participants is Stefano Trumpy, who had been instrumental in instituting what later became the Internet Society's Developing Country Workshops. Almost from the beginning, the Chapter is particularly active in fostering discussion of Internet Governance; in 2008, ISOC Italy becomes the first ISOC chapter to initiate a national Internet Governance Forum (IGF), on the recommendation of the European Parliament. 

INET ’99 takes place at the epicenter of the dot-com boom, Silicon Valley, and at its height. The conference, dedicated to the memory of Jon Postel, draws 1600 participants from around the world. While the Technology track reveals an increasing focus on the next generation of protocols and applications, the E-Commerce & E-Business track, in a sign of the times, features sessions such as “Venture Capital, IPO's and the Internet - Magic, Mania or Both?”

Internet Society UK England Chapter is founded in December, 1997 by Christian de Larrinaga, Simon Forrest, Robin Pickering, Mick Farmer, Gordon Howell, Bryan Pyne, and Rosemary Gardner. Its founding impetus is Vint Cerf’s statement that, "The Internet is for everyone but it won't be unless we make it so.”

The 10^th INET features a number of new tracks that reflect the millennial mood and the ascendancy of wireless technology, such as “Internet Science and Technology for the 21^st Century” and “Mobile Internet and IP Network Applications”. The plenary panel discussion, “The Future of the Internet Layer”, revisits a topic (among others) that sparked debate at INET ’92, in Kobe—the exhaustion of the IPv4 address space.

With roots in Poland’s early networking community and the Polish Internet Community (PSI), the ISOC Poland Chapter is founded on November 16, 2000 and is granted a  charter by ISOC on December 14, 2000. ISOC Polska holds its first General Assembly on January 13^th 2001, during which it elects a first Board that consists of Andrzej Wilk (President), Wladyslaw Majewski, Piotr Waglowski, and Jacek Gajewski.

Lynn St. Amour, who had previously served in the Internet Society’s Geneva office as global executive director and COO and as executive director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), succeeds Don Heath as ISOC President and CEO.  Her leadership of the organization is distinguished by tremendous growth in the breadth and reach of the Internet Society’s programs in the realms of Internet policy and governance and in global development. It is also marked by the solidification of ISOC’s relationship with and support of the IETF and its standards work.

Early in her tenure, St. Amour spearheads the Internet Society’s successful bid for the .ORG registry and establishes the Public Interest Registry (PIR) to oversee its operation. This will prove a turning point in ISOC’s fortunes, as it puts the organization on a much stronger financial footing, enabling more robust support of existing programs and partnerships and fostering the creation of new initiatives.

The St. Amour era also sees a growing emphasis on the Internet Society's status as an international organization, through the opening of Regional Bureaus throughout the world and through ISOC’s increased presence within other international organizations.

Internet Society Ecuador is founded by Carlos Vera, Jorge Olmedo, Fritz Feijoo, Ana Sanchez, Jorge Vera, Manolo Pullupaxi, and Oscar Aguilar. Originally the working group for the promotion of the Internet, which creates policies for development and user rights in Ecuador, it is motivated to transform into an ISOC chapter by ISOC’s principles—including the sentiment that “the Internet is for everyone”—and by a desire for a more international outlook.

The first INET of the new millennium, INET ’01 institutes changes in the conference format, with events divided into three “Summits”—Technology, Uses of the Internet, and Governance and Regulation—meant to reflect the components and forces that shape the Internet: “[T]hose who use it, those who steer it and those who build it.” Coming after the burst of the dot-com bubble but at a time when the Internet is becoming ever more entrenched in all facets of life, the conference features plenary sessions on intellectual property on the Internet and on the lessons learned thus far in Internet self-governance. For the first time at an INET, an entire conference “thread” is devoted to the IETF.

The ISOC Senegal Chapter is chartered in July, 2001 with Alex Corinthian serving as president. Prior to its official chartering by the Internet Society, the organization, which first convened in 1999, took part in such ISOC activities as INET '99, where it organized a workshop on network technologies for developing nations. Among the goals articulated at its founding are to facilitate participation in public and private aid projects in Senegal and other countries and "to promote appropriate use of native languages on the Internet, to encourage the circulation of local content, and to facilitate cooperation with the other African chapters of ISOC."

The first INET to be held in the US capital, INET ‘02 comes at a time when, as the notes for the Welcoming Remarks have it, “[t]he Internet is at a crossroads. In the next year or two, critical choices will be made about Internet standards and Internet policy that will shape the Internet for years for come.” One feature of the conference, the IPv6 Forum's IPv6 Technology Deployment Summit, points to one of the factors that will shape the Internet’s future. Also up for debate is the future of the INETs themselves, as one of the closing sessions asks “How can we change and improve the format and focus of the conference?” Also noteworthy in this first post-9/11 INET is a panel discussion on “Security and Anti-terrorism," which seeks to address the questions “How are terrorists, national liberation movements, and computer virus writers using the Internet? What can and should law enforcement agencies do in response?”

The Internet Society teams with technical registry services company Afilias in a bid to succeed VeriSign as the operator of the .ORG registry. In June 2002, after nearly a year of preparation, President and CEO Lynn St. Amour and David Maher, a volunteer active in public policy for the Internet Society, travel to the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting in Bucharest to present ISOC’s proposal. On 14 October, ICANN announces that the Internet Society's bid has prevailed; on 1 January 2003, the Internet Society assumes operation of .ORG.

The acquisition of .ORG marks a turning point in the Internet Society's history. It puts the organization on much sounder financial footing, enabling increased support for longstanding programs and obligations, and for the development of new initiatives in keeping with ISOC’s core values.

Having successfully bid for the .ORG registry, and in anticipation of the 1 January 2003 transition from VeriSign, the Internet Society forms a separate but related entity known as Public Interest Registry (PIR) to operate .ORG. 

Following an action taken by its Board of Trustees in 2002, the Internet Society transitions to a system whereby individual members will no longer directly elect all members of the Board of Trustees. In the years to come, the Board selection process will be amended to allow for Board elections by various Internet Society constituencies and pools of expertise, including the IETF, chapters, organisational members, and individual members.

SANOG is convened with a mission to bring together operators for educational purposes and to facilitate cooperation. SANOG provides a regional forum to discuss operational issues and technologies of interest to data operators in the South Asian Region. The main objective is educational, but at the same time gives vendors a chance to talk to engineers about newer technology and products on the sidelines. Engineers get to talk to each other about their experiences, to the benefit of the entire community. The Internet Society partners with SANOG in a number of initiatives and also serves as a sponsor of the organization, providing funding for the SANOG Fellowship Programme.

The UN’s World Summit on the Information Society begins with the goal of achieving a common vision, desire and commitment to build a people-centric, inclusive, and development-oriented Information Society where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information. The Internet Society makes important contributions to preliminary brainstorming sessions and more formal Preparatory Committees (PrepComs) in the more than one-year period leading up to the First Phase of the WSIS in Geneva. Involvement in the WSIS marks the beginning of a stronger and ongoing presence for the Internet Society in the international Internet policy and governance realms, with the Internet Society continuing a significant role in various WSIS follow-up activities, including annual WSIS Forums. 

As an extension of its work in global and regional Internet development, the Internet Society initiates a series of workshops aimed at providing the knowledge and skills ccTLD operators need to build up and maintain high quality infrastructure and services, including the acceleration of DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) deployment in ccTLDs. The Internet Society continues to deepen its partnerships with registered ccTLD associations in order to extend capacity building on ccTLD operations, management, and DNSSEC implementation.

The African Network Information Center (AFRINIC) is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa, responsible for the distribution and management of Internet number resources such as IP addresses and ASN (Autonomou System Numbers) for the African region. After gaining provisional recognition by ICANN in October of 2004, AFRINIC becomes operational on 22 February 2005, and is granted final recognition by ICANN in April of that year.

AFRINIC’s mission is to provide professional and efficient distribution of Internet number resources to the African Internet community, to support Internet technology usage and development across the continent, and to strengthen Internet self-governance in Africa by encouraging a participatory policy development. The Internet Society partners with AFRINIC in a number of endeavors, including seminars and workshops aimed at spreading awareness and implementation of IPv6.

AfCHIX is founded by three-time Internet Society IETF fellow Dorcas Muthoni as a mentorship programme for African women, by African women. AfCHIX is aimed at ensuring, in Muthoni’s words, “that more young women can get training, feel technically up to date, and present themselves for leadership roles.” The Internet Society provides ongoing support of AfCHIX, co-sponsoring a mentorship programme and technical training workshops for women during AfNOG meetings.

In late 2003, the IAB set up an ad hoc advisory committee to look into and make recommendations concerning the future administrative needs of the IETF. That committee’s report was published as RFC 3716. The IETF asked the Internet Society for support in its efforts to establish an administrative restructuring process that would effect the improvements contained in that report, resulting in a commitment to establish an IASA within ISOC. RFC 4071 represents the final definition of the IASA, resulting in a streamlining of the IETF’s administrative functions, funding sources, and greater autonomy over its budget process.

This development, and the establishment by the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) and the Internet Society of a trust for the IETF, marks a turning point in the relationship between ISOC and the IETF, which formally becomes, along with the IAB and the RFC editor, and activity organized by the Internet Society.

In a departure from previous, “global” INETs, INET 2005 is a Middle East and Africa (MEA) regional conference, organized in conjunction with the Second Pan-Arab Regional Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Cairo. In the session entitled 'The Internet: How it works, Why it works, Who makes it work?' representatives of the groups and organizations that enable and support the operation of the Internet infrastructure give first-hand information about just how the Internet coordination processes have evolved and how they work today. Speakers also include respected and experienced specialists from the MEA region.

First convened in 2004, PACNOG holds its first meeting in Fiji in 2005. The Internet Society provides early and ongoing support for the group and its workshops.

The Internet Society continues its strong participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (including Preparatory Committees) with the Second Phase of the WSIS, held in Tunis. As noted by Internet Society President and CEO Lynn St. Amour, the Tunis Summit “advances the debate beyond the details of technical administration and on to broader issues that require increased coordination by stakeholders in order to ensure the continued stability of the Internet."

A consensus emerges from Tunis that governments should not become involved in the daily operational and technical matters of the Internet but allow for the continued successful operation of the Internet by the Internet community as a whole. One of the most significant developments to come out of WSIS is the Tunis Agenda, which includes a proposal for a new forum for multistakeholder policy dialogue—the Internet Governance Forum, in which the Internet Society becomes an active and ongoing participant. 

Since the Tunis Summit, the Internet Society has been actively involved in supporting implementation of the targets, recommendations, and commitments of the WSIS as they pertain to the Internet and to Internet governance. 

The Internet Society pilots the Fellowship to the Internet Engineering Task Force programme at IETF 66 in Montreal. The success of this and a second pilot at IETF 67 lead the Internet Society to formalize the  Fellowship in 2007, as a means to identify and foster potential future leaders from emerging and developing economies and provide an opportunity for networking with individuals from around the world with similar technical interests. The program is also aimed at raising global awareness and understanding of—and participation in—the IETF and its work.

Recognizing, in the words of Internet Society President and CEO Lynn St. Amour, that “all that’s global is truly local," the Internet Society embarks on a regionalization strategy, spearheaded by the creation of Regional Bureaus. First to be established, in Addis Ababa, is the Regional Bureau in Africa.

The Africa Bureau devotes particular focus to issues of Internet education (access and development), cybersecurity, mobile Internet, the cost of online connection, and policy in support of the development of an open and user-defined Internet.

Regional Bureaus play a key role in driving a full range of operational activities such as policy, technology, capacity development, and membership, in a manner tailored to unique local needs. They are also instrumental in building local collaboration and engagement in the Internet Society’s mission, including supporting the growth and empowerment of chapters.

The United Nations creates the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to continue the work of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The IGF convenes stakeholders from government, industry, and civil society as equals to discuss Internet governance issues. While there are no negotiated outcomes, the IGF serves as an opportunity for those with decision-making authority in the public and private sectors, as well as civil society, to engage with a diverse array of Internet constituents.

The Internet Society continues to be an active participant in the IGF and, additionally, conducts an IGF Ambassadors Programme for young ISOC members with a strong interest in the issues and themes of the IGF.

The Internet Society establishes its second Regional Bureau with the opening of its Latin America and Caribbean Bureau in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Bureau, which subsequently moves to Montevideo, Uruguay, focuses on educational programmes aimed at building network access and development skills; policy engagement and consultation in the realms increasing high-speed Internet access, promoting Internet innovation, and tackling the challenges of the digital economy; and partnerships with private sector, educational, and civil society entities to achieve goals such as IPv6 deployment.

With its opening in January 2008, the Asia-Pacific Bureau becomes the Internet Society’s third regional office. Among the areas of focus for the Bureau, which moves to Singapore in May 2012, are programmes aimed at helping engineers in developing countries improve their skill sets and the networks in their home countries; regional standards and forum involvement in areas such as IPv6 adoption; and developing deeper relationships with APEC TEL, OECD, and other partners in the policymaking process.

The Internet Society and the Organization for African Unity (OAU, a.k.a. African Union) sign a memorandum of understanding to tackle emerging Internet issues—such as Internet standards, IPv6, and Internet governance—at the continental and global level.

The Internet Society and CITEL sign a memorandum of understanding in September 2008 that permits cooperation on joint projects and training, and on specific issues such as access and multilingualism, Internet policy, Internet security, and development.

The result of groundwork laid at OECD’s Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy, held in Seoul in 2008, the Internet Technical Advisory Committee to the OECD is formally recognized by the organization in January 2009 and welcomed at the March 2009 meeting in Paris. In the words of its Charter, the Internet Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC) to the OECD “brings together, in a decentralized network approach, the counsel and expertise of technically-focused organizations to policy formulation for the Internet economy…to contribute constructively to Internet-related policies developed in the OECD.” The Internet Society is involved from the beginning, having coordinated a technical stakeholder forum in 2007, at the invitation of the OECD, in preparation for the 2008 ministerial meeting.

Launched at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom World Conference in Geneva, the Internet Society’s Next Generation Leaders (NGL) programme offers the world’s next generation of Internet leaders a unique opportunity to advance their skills and accelerate their careers. The programme is designed to prepare young professionals for leadership and to bridge the boundaries between business, technical development, policy, and governance on local, regional, and international levels.

Aimed at emerging talents between the ages of 20 and 40, NGL blends coursework and practical experience to help prepare young professionals from around the world to become the next generation of Internet technology, policy, and business leaders.

The Internet Society’s Regional Bureau in North American is opened in Washington, DC. The Bureau focuses on engagement and consultation with policymakers on issues such as US and Canadian strategies to increase high-speed Internet access, promoting Internet innovation, and confronting the challenges of the digital economy; serving as an important voice encouraging continued commitment to private-sector leadership, a collaborative approach to technology development, and the free flow of information online; and developing partnerships that demonstrate strong support for principles of openness and bottom-up decision-making in the regional policy dialogue.

The Internet Society is granted Consultative Status by ECOSOC at the organization’s Substantive Session in July 2010, entitling ISOC to accreditation and allowing it to participate in relevant UN conferences and preparatory meetings.

ECOSOC is the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states and the UN system.  It is responsible for promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress; identifying solutions to international economic, social, and health problems; facilitating international cultural and educational cooperation; and encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Despite Africa’s growing regional network infrastructure, most of African cross-border traffic exchange is exchanged in Europe and North America. The Internet Society organizes the first African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) as a multi-stakeholder conference to address interconnection, peering, and traffic exchange challenges and opportunities for Africa.

Held annually, AfPIF aims to foster national and cross-border interconnection opportunities by providing a forum where key players from infrastructure and service providers, IXPs, regulators, and policy makers can engage in a relaxed but businesslike environment, sharing their experiences and learning from experts in the field.

With the Internet Society as a founding partner, the first meeting of CaribNOG convenes a rich community of network operators dedicated to exchanging technical information and experiences related to the management of IP networks in the Caribbean region.

CaribNOG collaborates with regional and international organizations and stakeholders to facilitate capacity building and professional networking activities. Its initiatives include technical workshops, seminars, research papers, and annual meetings.

The Internet Society gains Permanent Observer status with WIPO during the organization’s General Assembly in 2010. Seeing its role as one of providing technical guidance and advice to policy makers involved in key Internet issues, the Internet Society co-organizes numerous workshops with WIPO concerning online copyright issues. The Internet Society is also an Observer Organization to the Steering Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) and Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks (SCT).

The first meeting of Network Operators Group of Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNOG) convenes technologist and operational experts from leading Internet providers, equipment manufacturers, organizations responsible for Internet coordination, and the academic networking community—providing a forum for the discussion and exchange of information on key operational issues impacting the Internet in the region.

LACNOG is an initiative of the Internet Society and the region’s Internet community who, seeing a need for a pan-regional network operators group in Latin America, work together to make it happen. The event brings together people in the region responsible for the creation, maintenance, and operation of Internet networks and provides a forum for discussion, coordination, and the exchange of best practices between networking professionals.

The Internet Society and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordination Agency (NPCA) sign a memorandum of understanding to work together to develop ICT (information and Communication Technology) in Africa by creating an enabling environment for Internet development, promoting the development of local content and enhancing the capacity of African ICT specialists to deal with Internet-related technical and policy issues.

NEPAD is a program adopted by the African Union (AU) in 2001. Its overarching objective is to enhance Africa's growth and participation in the global economy by accelerating economic cooperation and integration among African countries. The NEPAD NCPA was established to facilitate and coordinate the implementation of continental and regional programs and projects, mobilize resources and partners in support of the implementation of Africa's priority programs and projects, conduct and coordinate research and knowledge management, monitor and evaluate the implementation of programs and projects, and advocate for the African Union (AU) and NEPAD vision, mission, and core principles.

The Internet Society sponsors World IPv6 day as a global-scale test flight of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). On World IPv6 Day, major web companies and other industry players come together to enable IPv6 on their main websites for 24 hours. The goal is to motivate organizations across the industry—Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors, and web companies—to prepare their services for IPv6, in order to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 address space runs out.

World IPv6 Day acts as a focal point to bring existing efforts together. For the first time, players from all parts of the industry are able to work towards the common goal of enabling IPv6 at a large scale with minimal disruption. By acting together, ISPs, web site operators, OS manufacturers, and equipment vendors are able to address problems—including global scalability issues—in a controlled fashion and resolve them cooperatively.

The Deploy360 Programme serves as a bridge between the IETF standards process and adoption of those standards by the global operations community for such technologies as IPv6, DNSSeC, and Routing Resiliency and Security.

IPv6 deployment efforts, in particular, confront the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses and deepen the Internet Society’s commitment to deploy IPv6 in developing countries via hands-on training workshops, facilitation of experience-sharing among operators, and increased awareness of IPv6 deployment imperatives.

To highlight the Internet’s profound impact on our world, the Internet Society establishes an Internet Hall of Fame to identify, recognize, and celebrate individuals who have fuelled the development of the Internet and used it to transform the lives of people throughout the world. The Hall of Fame’s first group of inductees totals 33—with 14 networking “Pioneers”, Nine “Global Connectors”, and 10 “Innovators”.

To celebrate its 20^th anniversary, the Internet Society holds its first global INET conference since 2004. Global INET 2012 carries the theme “Meeting at the Crossroads: Imagining the Future Internet” and, as a prelude, features a collaborative leadership exchange centered on this same topic. The conference serves as the forum for the inaugural inductions into the newly created Internet Hall of Fame and closes with keynote remarks by IHOF inductee and founding president of ISOC Vint Cerf.

Through its Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau based in Singapore, the Internet Society becomes an official member of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity, an intergovernmental organization founded by a joint initiative of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The APT operates in conjunction with telecom service providers, manufacturers of communications equipment, and research and development organizations active in the field of communication, information, and innovation technologies. As an associate member of the APT, the Bureau is able to actively contribute to discussions shaping the region’s agenda and positions on areas relating to Internet and ICT (information and communications technology) development.

The ISOC Switzerland Chapter—formerly ISOC Switzerland Geneva—is rejuvenated on May 9, 2012 by Bernie Hoeneisen and Roxana Radu, an ISOC Next Generation Leaders (NGL) program member.

The ISOC Switzerland Chapter engages more than 100 members in events that reflect member interests and ISOC priorities, with plans for more events in Bern, Geneva, Zurich, and other regions of Switzerland in the coming year and beyond.

The Internet Society Kenya Chapter is founded on 9 May 2012 by Barrack Otieno, Charles Oloo, Judy Okite, and Elizabeth Orembo, in order to provide a forum for IT professionals and individuals in civil society to engage in issues of Internet policy, infrastrucure, and standards, among other concerns.

The Internet Society organizes World IPv6 Launch to motivate organizations across the industry—including Internet service providers (ISPs), hardware makers, and web companies—to prepare for and permanently enable Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) on their products and services as Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address space runs out.

The largest industry commitment to and deployment of IPv6 in the history of the Internet, World IPv6 Launch acts as a focal point to bring existing deployment efforts and industry players together. By acting together on the World IPv6 Launch, ISPs, web companies, and equipment vendors are able to cooperatively address common challenges and work towards the goal of permanently deploying IPv6 on the global Internet

The first phase of the WSIS+10 Review is conducted in Paris by the United Nations Educational, Scientiic, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in partnership with the International TelecommunicationUnion (ITU), the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The Internet Society is heavily engaged in the preparatory process of the WSIS+10 Review event, with the Internet Society providing advice to the UNESCO Secretariat on the organization of several sessions related to Human Rights and Freedom of expression and encouraging UNESCO leadership to conduct an open and inclusive engagement strategy with the WSIS community. The Internet Society also conducts and moderates workshops on topics including “Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: exploring economic and educational Aspects of Local Content,” “The New PII: Privacy-Impacting Information,” “Beyond the Code: Are Human Rights Part of the Internet’s DNA?” and “Internet Governance Principles: Toward a Multistakeholder and Universal Framework of Commitments.” Internet Society Chapters, Organizational Members, and Individual Members are also engaged in the event.

The Internet Society names Kathryn C. Brown as its new CEO, succeeding Lynn St. Amour, effective 1 January 2014. Brown comes to the position with more than 30 years of experience in communications policy development, including serving as Senior Vice President, Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility at Verizon; specializing in legal and regulatory communications policy as a partner at the Washington D.C. law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering; and serving in the administration of US President Clinton, as Head of the Office of Policy and Development at the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) and as Chief of Staff to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman William E. Kennard.

 At Verizon, Brown helped identify and navigate emerging digital issues and led its global corporate responsibility initiatives. She represented the company in the successful adoption by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) of principles for Internet policymaking and was a member of the US delegation to the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) World Conference on International Telecommunications treaty negotiations.

As leader of Verizon's corporate responsibility initiatives, she served on Verizon's corporate councils for the development of the company's online privacy and content policies and promoted Verizon's Human Rights Statement and Supplier Code of Conduct. Additionally, she oversaw an investment of more than $60 million (US) a year in programs and grants from the Verizon Foundation that helped support Internet development. In 2010 she partnered with the Internet Society to launch a highly successful forum on the Internet and higher education in East Africa.

While serving at the FCC, she managed the staff supporting FCC Chairman Kennard's historic decision to keep the Internet unregulated, to fund the E-rate, and to increase radio spectrum availability to fuel wireless technology innovation.