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bodies This page looks at network coordination/standards bodies and a few advocacy bodies.  There are more detailed pointers in specific guides, eg the intellectual property guide identifies government agencies, industry groups and other advocacy bodies in Australia and overseas that are concerned with copyright.      network management bodies The World Wide Web Consortium (aka W3C) is a nongovernment organisation that creates Web standards. It dates from October 1994. The Consortium has recently released a seven point summary of its goals and operating principles.  The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the protocol engineering and development arm of the Internet. Formally established in 1986, is comprises network designers, operators, vendors and researchers. It has a number of Working Groups.  It is guided by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), which serves as technology adviser to the Internet Society (ISOC).   The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) is responsible for technical management of IETF activities and the Internet standards development process.  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) is the non-profit private sector body formed in 1998 to assume responsibility from the US government for four key Internet functions: management of the domain name system, allocation of IP address space, assignment of protocol parameters (the 'http' you see in web addresses is a protocol) and management of the root server system.  There's a more detailed introduction to ICANN in our governance guide.      and other players The Internet Society (ISOC) is a professional society with more than 150 organizational and 6,000 individual members in over 100 countries.   It is a forum for discussion about encryption, domain naming, copyright and other issues in future development of the Internet.  ISOC also provides a home for groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the IETF and the IAB.  The Australian Internet Industry Association (IIA), as the name suggests is the local industry association, cohabiting (at times somewhat uneasily) with bodies such as the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association.   The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has a broader ambit, being concerned with the 'information industries' generally.  Papers from the recently established US Internet Policy Institute (IPI), an independent forum for research and discussion, are 'must read' territory.   The Global Internet Project (GIP), another US-based and industry-driven group, founded by Netscape's James Clark (star of silicon western The New New Thing) comprises "well-known leaders of the Internet Revolution" but its papers for international senior executives supply a perspective on how the managerial elite are perceiving the online world.  Among the wave of US business lobby groups influencing policy in the US and Australia are NetCoalition.com, the strangely named Global Information Infrastructure (GII) which is not to be confused with the nonprofit Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC), the E-Fairness Coalition (a "level playing field" for taxing retailers), the Internet Alliance ("premier organisation of policy professionals representing the Internet online industry") and the Global Business Dialogue for Electronic Commerce (GBDe).    next page  (scientists)