News for and about the Internet2 community

["Greg Wood" <>]

Internet Society and World Wide Web Consortium Strengthen Relationship to 
Help Ensure Open Global Internet

ISOC Donation to Support Evolution of W3C Organization

Reston, VA, USA and Geneva, Switzerland, and http://www.w3.org/ -- 11 
December 2009 -- The Internet Society (ISOC) and the World Wide Web 
Consortium (W3C) today announced a donation from ISOC for the purpose of 
advancing the evolution of W3C as an organization that creates open Web 
standards. Citing strongly aligned views on the value of an open global 
Internet and support for the current Internet governance and management 
model, the Internet Society pledged to support W3C efforts  
to implement a more agile, inclusive, and flexible organizational structure.

"ISOC and W3C have worked together for years in a number of areas, and  
have deeply shared values about the Internet's development," said Lynn  
St. Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society. "Our support to  
the W3C in their transition efforts demonstrates ISOC's commitment to  
ensuring the Internet continues to be a global platform for  
innovation. What's at stake is the Internet's openness, which is a  
critical enabler of new products and services to billions of users  
worldwide."

The announcement reflects the two organizations' shared aim of  
ensuring the continued growth and accessibility of the global Internet  
and Web, and stewardship responsibilities to ensure they continue to  
benefit users worldwide.

"ISOC and W3C have a long history of cooperation and the Internet  
ecosystem has benefited from our shared yet independent voices," said  
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "The W3C staff, Members, and community  
continue to work on making W3C more relevant and valuable to the Web  
and Internet communities. ISOC support will allow W3C to evolve its  
structure to ensure we continue to forge solid working relationships  
with the increasing numbers of developers and users, worldwide."

The two organizations will continue to operate independently, and will  
maintain their long-standing, informal collaboration. ISOC's pledge of  
support is for three years, with both organizations working to ensure  
progress. A FAQ with additional information is available on both the  
ISOC site and the W3C site.

About the Internet Society
The Internet Society (ISOC) is a non-profit organization founded in  
1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education,  
and policy. ISOC is the organizational home of the Internet  
Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet's premier technical  
standards body. With offices in Washington, D.C., and Geneva,  
Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring the open development,  
evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of people  
throughout the world. For more information see http://www.isoc.org

About the World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium  
where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work  
together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission  
through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to  
ensure long-term growth for the Web. Over 350 organizations are  
Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer  
Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA,  
the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics  
(ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan, and has  
additional Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

Media Contacts
Internet Society
International --
Greg Wood 
<>,
 +1-703-439-2145

W3C
Contact Americas, Australia --
Ian Jacobs, 
<>,
 +1.718.260.9447
Contact Europe, Africa and the Middle East --
Marie-Claire Forgue, 
<>,
 +33 6 76 86 33 41
Contact Asia --
Naoko Ishikura, 
<>,
 +81.466.49.1170