general - news - international organisations - governmental organisations - non-governmental organisations - research - pipe providers and isps - publications of general interest

Here are some links that members have collected over the years. More links can be found at the ISN website, where our links service is now situated. Click here to visit that site.

general

Histories of the Internet

Delphi FAQs: A Brief History of the Internet

The Internet: an introduction
A great little informal description of what the Internet is, and what the Internet isn't.

Introduction to TCP/IP
A useful, but slightly technical guide to TCP/IP.

Glossaries of technical terms

Federal Standard 1037C: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms

The New Hacker's Dictionary - Table of Contents

BABEL: A Glossary of Computer Related Abbreviations and Acronyms

Measuring the Internet

Nua Internet Surveys

Internet2

Next Generation Internet
This is the US Government's site to deal with aspects of the NGI initiative.

Internet2.edu
This site and this link, discusses the NGI proposal in slightly different terms.  

news

CNET News.com - The Net
Informative and up to date coverage of the latest development in the Internet realm.   Political News from Wired News
Excellent analysis of current events.

Quick Links
Links to news items about legal and regulatory aspects of Internet and the information society, particularly those relating to information content, and market and technology.

The New York Times: Technology - CyberTimes
Good columns, a little bit conservative though. Requires free registration (email address only).

UNESCO Observatory on the Information Society
This Observatory's main objectives are to raise awareness on the constant evolution of ethical, legal and societal challenges brought about by new technologies. It aims to become a public service readily accessible to all by 1. providing updated information on the evolution of the Information Society at the national and international levels and 2. fostering debates on the related issues.

APDIP
Internet Governance Information Service managed by the Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme, an initiative by the United Nations Development Programme, to host significant Internet-related news of interest to member countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Connected
This site hosts a wide variety of issues from teleworking to governance, and everything inbetween.

f ¡ ® s T - m o ñ d @ ¥
An academic journal with many interesting articles about the Information Age.

Information Society News INDEX
From the EU's ISPO, keeps you uptodate with the developments in Europe's Information Society.

C'est Need To Know!
Slightly cynical/ comical newsletter on developments in the ICT/ Computing arenas.

Silicon ~ The IT TV News Service
An excellent news service covering the IT/ ICT sectors. Real audio/ video streaming as well. Can be personalised.

International Journal of Communications Law and Policy
Another interesting journal, covering legal issues in communications.

International Organisations

ITU Selected Sites - Telecom - Global Information Infrastructure
Contains a list of documents held on the ITU's server regarding the Global Information Infrastructure

Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development
With particular links to the work on Regulatory Reform, and the OECD's Science and Technology Directorate

World Trade Organisation
This site contains a lot of information on the implications of the Internet for markets

World Intellectual Property Organisation
WIPO is responsible for the promotion of the protection of intellectual property throughout the world. In this respect, the borderless Internet confronts WIPO with a heavy challenge...

Global Inventory Project
"The Global Inventory Project is a "one stop facility" linking distributed national and international inventories of projects, studies and other activities relevant to the promotion and the further development of knowledge and understanding of the Information Society." This is a G7 Pilot Project.

Governmental Organisations

Non-governmental Organisations

ISOC
The Internet Society "provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organization home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)". A must-view site for all Internet researchers!

ISOC Geneva
The Geneva Chapter of the Internet Society was inaugurated in April 1995. This was the first Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC) to be established in Europe.

Internet Architecture Board
A technical advisory group of ISOC, this organisation "provides oversight of the architecture for the protocols and procedures used by the Internet".

Internet Engineering Task Force
One of the technical organisations involved with the development and operation of the Internet. Their website contains information about the IETF, including meetings and Internet-Drafts. A child of ISOC.

Internet Research Task Force
An organisation closely related to the IAB, with the following rubric: "To promote research of importance to the evolution of the future Internet by creating focused, long-term and small Research Groups working on topics related to Internet protocols, applications, architecture and technology".

World Wide Web Consortium
"..leading the web to its full potential". Another must-view site!

Electronic Frontier Foundation
EFF, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working in the public interest to protect fundamental civil liberties, including privacy and freedom of expression, in the arena of computers and the Internet.

Global Internet Liberty Campaign
An organisation dedicated to the preservation of civil liberties and human rights on the Internet.

Cyber Rights & Cyber Liberties (UK)
A very active organisation that closely observes government action and legislation in the United Kingdom and European Union. Its main purpose is to promote free speech and privacy on the Internet and raise public awareness of these important issues.

World Internetworking Alliance
The World Internetworking Alliance site contains information and papers about infrastructure, content and the role of the ITU in open standards.

Global Internet Project
The GIP "is an international group of senior executives committed to spurring the growth of the Internet worldwide". This site hosts information about the Internet and various information concerning its stability and future.

Internet Law and Policy Forum
The ILPF is an organisation comprising members of the business community who seek to examine the legal and policy issues developing from the development of the Internet.

Computer Professionals for Social Repsonsibility
The CPSR is comprised of Computer Scientists who are concerned with the impact of computers on society. Check out their website for information on various issues.

Internet Alliance
The IA is an association of businesses that lobbies the US-government to promote the interests of the American Internet industry.

Research

Center for Internet Studies (CIS)
The CIS' mission is based on the belief that a more comprehensive understanding of the Internet's place within the world system is a necessary and crucial component to understanding the new politics, economics and culture of the 21st century. The CIS conducts original research and takes an interdisciplinary approach to integrate the emerging norms and principles of the Internet Age into mainstream academic study.

UNESCO Observatory on the Information Society
This Observatory's main objectives are to raise awareness on the constant evolution of ethical, legal and societal challenges brought about by new technologies. It aims to become a public service readily accessible to all by 1. providing updated information on the evolution of the Information Society at the national and international levels and 2. fostering debates on the related issues.

IR Theory Web Site
The International Relations Theory Website provides an electronic forum for the scholarly discussion of IR theory ideas, issues and research. It maintains the IR Theory mailing-list, which aims at facilitating communication with others engaged or interested in IR theory and research.

The Global Public Policy Project
The purpose of this project is to elaborate on one key potential policy instrument, global public policy networks, that can strengthen the ability of the United Nations to act effectively and efficiently in this new and constantly changing environment.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society
The Center is a network of teaching and research faculty from Harvard Law School working to identify and engage the challenges and opportunities of cyberspace.

The Harvard Information Infrastructure Project (HIIP)
The HIIP convenes experts from government, industry, and academia and draws on the perspectives and insights of policy-makers, managers, economists, lawyers, political scientists, and technologists in pursuit of its mission to advance the understanding of emerging issues related to the development of information infrastructure.

USIP Virtual Diplomacy Homepage
The mission of the Virtual Diplomacy initiative is to explore the role of new information and communication technologies in the conduct of international relations, particularly how they affect international conflict management and resolution.

IR/ International Communications workshop
A British International Studies Association (BISA) supported workshop, set up to deal with issues of International Communication and International Relations.

Democr@cy Forum
Deals with issues of Democracy in the Information Age

Benton Organisation: Communications Policy and Practice
This organisation deals with a broad range of issues, but focuses on access issues to minority groups in the US.

Cyber-Geography Research
This organisation sets out to "map" cyberspace in different ways.

W3C Technology and Society Domain
Research into ethical and legal concerns fron the Internet's international/ global perspective. Work on many areas, including privacy and metadata.

Information Society and Governance Project
Online reseaarch being carried out into various aspects of the Information Society and Governance issues

MPIfG - Internet Research Project
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute are also doing research into the utility of the Internet.

Pipe providers and ISPs

MCI WorldCom International
Home of one of the big multinationals providing Internet related services and infrastructure.

UUNET
UUNET, the Internet services division of MCI WorldCom, is one of the biggest pipe providers in the global market.

EUNet
The European pendant to UUNET.

Welcome to PSINet
Another backbone provider.

EuroISPA
EuroISPA is the pan-European association of the Internet services providers associations of the countries of the European Union.

Asia & Pacific Internet Association

Publications of interest

Co-ordinating the Internet
This is the web-based supplement to the book of the same name. An excellent list of links towards the bottom of the page.

The Cook Report on the Internet
"The Cook Report is a monthly newsletter focusing on the technology and policy complexities of Internet infrastructure development."

Netizens:On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet
A link to the online version of this good text.

Reports and Studies on Governance through Metaphor - UIA
List to a substantial number of good works related to the issue of Governance.

Excerpts from _Being Digital_, by Nicholas Negroponte
"The Cyberdock version of Nicholas Negroponte's bestselling "Being Digital" -- published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. -- goes beyond displaying and distributing the book's contents in another medium. A "Cyberdock" is what it sounds like: a "cyber dock" of sorts, featuring the book's text files as a stable casting off point, from which the reader is invited to explore the Internet Sea on one of the many "URL-Boats" tied to the Dock."

_The Virtual Community_, by Howard Rheingold
The online version of this classic.