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

ISOC Donation to Support Evolution of W3C Organization

RESTON, Virginia and GENEVA, December 11 - www.w3.org/ — 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 an open, 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 initial 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 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 www.w3.org/

Greg Wood of ISOC International, wood at isoc.org, +1-703-439-2145; or Americas, Australia: Ian Jacobs, ij at w3.org, +1-718-260-9447; Europe, Africa and the Middle East: Marie-Claire Forgue, mcf at w3.org, +33-6-76-86-33-41, Asia: Naoko Ishikura, keio-contact at w3.org, +81-466-49-1170, all of W3C