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The Internet is a system of computer networks linked together in cooperative, non-centralized collaboration. The system has millions of host computers and millions of individual users accessing recourses from more than 3 dozen countries.
The Internet grew out of the ARPANET, a research network created by the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced research Projects Agency in 1969. It linked various government departments with university, industrial, and research organizations. In the 1980's the Dept. of Defense moved its military operations machines to a separate network called MILNET, leaving ARPANET to be used by researchers. In 1990, ARPANET was dissolved and its workload picked up by the federal government's National Science Foundation (NSF) through NSFNET. NSFNET has grown to become a national backbone network, interconnecting campus and mid-level networks into a nationwide data network.
Although no single organization manages the entire Internet, groups exist which influence its development. One organization is the Internet Society, also known as the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), formed in 1991. Its mission is to support and promote the evolution and growth of the Internet. The IETF is no ordinary or traditional organization. There is no formal member. It has no corporate representative. You join by participating in its activities as an individual. Anyone who is interested in the activities of IETF may register for and attend any meeting. The IETF holds meetings 3 times per year around the world. While initially organized in the U.S., the ITEF has understood its charter to be as global as the Internet itself, and has been active in raising attendance from outside the U.S. to nearly 50% of the total.
Created
on March 5th, 2001.
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