Although addressed primarily to Internet Society members, the following message contains information which should be of interest to librarians, lawyers and other important stakeholders in the internet community who need to follow ongoing developments.
Dear Members, Friends, and Colleagues,
The end of 2009 is here - and what a year it has been. The Internet
Society continued to prosper in 2009, the results of our work reaching
wider and deeper than ever before. So it is a pleasure to extend my
sincere gratitude to all of you whose combined efforts, energy, and
dedication have made this such a great year.
We often use the term "Internet community" and, looking back at the
achievements of this year, it is clear that these are truly the result
of a strong, committed community pulling together around shared values
and principles.
It is impossible to list here all of the Internet Society's
achievements from such a busy and productive year, but I would like to
single out a few highlights.
Within the Enabling Access Initiative, we worked closely with Chapters
and other local and regional partners to significantly extend our
technical and policy capacity building programmes, especially in
Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. These efforts were aided
through a revitalized INET programme with specialized content
developed in partnership with local communities, and which reached out
successfully to hundreds of participants in each location. This work
advanced our profile and strengthened our message in many high-level
forums, such as the OECD, the World Bank, and the ITU. Access
continues to be one of the major themes in many of the Chapter and
other member projects supported by our grants programmes.
In our InterNetWorks Initiative, a number of new efforts contributed
to helping to advance the health of the Internet. ISOC continues to
project a strong voice for IPv6 deployment, so it has been pleasing to
see in 2009 that IPv6 is gathering momentum around the world. In an
exciting new development this year, ISOC launched a series of topical,
lively panel discussions during IETF meetings. The first on IPv6
deployment attracted much international attention. Together with the
subsequent panels on DNS security and bandwidth management issues,
these events have set the scene for what will be an important ongoing
activity, helping to advance the health of the Internet and promoting
the role of the IETF.
ISOC's Trust and Identity Initiative benefited from two important new
staff additions in 2009, increasing our involvement in many important
new initiatives and partnerships in both the Trust and Identity
spaces. One of the most significant is the Kantara Initiative
(formerly the Liberty Alliance), in which ISOC has developed a strong
voice and leadership role.
Throughout all of our work in 2009, we strived to promote better
understanding of the nature and importance of the Internet Model of
development and the relationships of the many organizations and
functions making up the Internet Ecosystem. These efforts have clearly
paid off and we were very pleased to see many of our messages
reflected in the words and actions of many others in regional,
national, and global discussions. In 2009, ISOC's key messages were
more frequently cited in media reports and reflected in statements by
policy makers around the world than ever before.
Additions to ISOC's staff in 2009 helped us make big strides in
producing better publications and communications resources, delivering
important information and services in more languages, and providing
much greater support for events where Chapters, Individual and
Organization Members, and others come together in support of our
common mission. The successful Sphere project continues to be an
excellent process for enabling the full potential of the Chapter
network. And we were very pleased to recently launch the first phase
of our new Association Management System as a much improved tool for
Chapter and member interaction.
This year was one of ISOC's most significant ever in terms of global
engagement. With highly visible roles in the EU, ITU, OECD, IGF, and
many other major policy and technical forums, it is clear that ISOC's
reputation as a trusted and authoritative voice on critical Internet
issues continues to grow stronger. We again were honoured to
coordinate the participation of other organizations, especially in the
Internet Technical Advisory Committee to the OECD and the Internet
Pavilion at the ITU's Telecom World 2009. At the latter event, ISOC
announced the Next Generation Leaders programme, a new activity
starting in 2010 to build on our past successes such as the Network
Training Workshops (NTW's), as well as our current work in Fellowships
to the IETF, and Ambassadorships to the IGF and other forums, adding
coursework and mentoring to help accelerate the careers of the young
practitioners who will lead the Internet into its next generation.
Finally, the Internet Society is finishing the year on a high note,
having just announced our support for the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C), to help it evolve as a more agile, inclusive, and flexible
organization, as it creates and promotes open standards.
There is so much more I could mention here - it really has been an
extraordinary year. As 2009 draws to a close, it is important to
recognize and thank all those who contributed to such a successful
year. So, thank you to all the Individual and Organization Members,
the Chapters, and all our other supporters and partners for their
efforts and support as we worked together in pursuit of our common
goals. Thank you to our friends in the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) without whose values
and work, the Internet, as we know it, would not exist. And, of
course, thank you to the ISOC staff, the ISOC Board of Trustees, the
Organization Member Advisory Council and the Public Interest Registry
(PIR), for their efforts and support. To all of you, your support is
vital to helping the Internet improve the lives of people everywhere.
Finally, I'd like to extend my very best wishes to you and your
families during the holiday season, as we couldn't do what we do
without their support. I look forward to working together with all of
you for a prosperous and successful 2010.
Warmest regards,
Lynn
Lynn St.Amour
President & CEO, Internet Society
