The Internet Society donates millions to standards body
W3C to receive cash injection
By Carolyn Duffy Marsan | Network World US | Published: 10:53, 14 December 2009
The Internet Society announced Friday that it was making a $2.5 million donation over the next three years to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the premier standards setting body for the web.
Non-profit ISOC is already the primary sponsor of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which creates the key standards that underpin the Internet, including the TCP/IP protocol suite, the Domain Name System (DNS) and email standards such as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
Founded by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, the W3C is responsible for web standards such as the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and web services standards such as the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
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With its donation, ISOC is not joining W3C as a member. Instead, it is funding W3C's reorganisation effort, which is aimed at W3C becoming more accessible and producing standards faster.
"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," said Lynn St. Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society, in a statement. "What's at stake is the Internet's openness, which is a critical enabler of new products and services to billions of users worldwide."
Until now, W3C has gotten its funding from its members, primarily corporations and government agencies, and research grants
