On Monday, November 9th, the Internet Society (ISOC) of Chicago held its first organizational meeting. Organizing the meeting was acting chairman Bill Slater, as well as co-founder John Owrey who is president of the NT Special Interest Group of the Chicago Computer Society, and Terry Felke, professor of Harper College.
In attendance to the meeting were a variety of experts in computer fields as well as some interested Internet users. Notably, there was representation from Arthur Andersen's network structure group and various Internet Consulting firms, as well as a Journal of American Medical Association editor and a chartering member of ISOC.
ISOC is an organization lead by Vinton Cerf which offers a considerable deal of power to members. ISOC is the umbrella organization to the IETF, the IAB, the IRTF, and the newly formed ICANN. Internet Society members are given insider news to developmental and political issues in the Internet's technologies and regulations before the general public knows. In return, since the organization is completely ran by the members, each member has a chance to give input to the future of the Internet while the issues are still being disputed. The bi-monthly magazine, "On The Internet," keeps members abreast to the latest trends and developments.
The ISOC was formed in 1993, around the same time as the World Wide Web was opened to the public, in order to unify the organizations of Internet experts and budding legislators to work together. ISOC came to organize the commercialization efforts of the web, as the Internet turned from a closed group of academics and computer nerds to a big business advertising and transactional media.
Today, the Internet welcome seven new users every second. Data transmissions on the Internet double every 180 days and web space storage is doubled every 8 months. In 1997, there were 4 terabytes of data, but current estimates state there is between 8 and 10. There are 10,000 domains registered daily, over 50 million users a week, and this all adds up to an expected 150 billion dollars of electronic commerce this year. When charted, all figures seem to be growing exponentially.
This goes to prove that being involved with Internet development and e-commerce is an excellent idea for a information technologies expert and ISOC is the best organization to keep Internet experts and users current, informed, and empowered. However, it doesn't explain why a Chicagoan-local should join the Chicago chapter in addition to the core organization. Chicago is a super-power in business today and business is moving more towards electronic commerce with each passing day. Chicago has a need for an Internet organization to educate the professionals and the users, and to offer a collective voice to legislation and development.
Beyond the power of Chicago business, the Chicagoland area has a Network Access Point, a major Internet backbone connection point, and only one of 5 in the United States. For more info, see the NAPs Website.
ISOC-Chicago has a mission to provide continued education to its members and education to the community. It is interested in providing an open line of communication between its members. This can offer advancement for all involved, from asking a question to an expert to recommending eachother in business. ISOC-Chicago of course wants to give input to the governing bodies that decide how our Internet is to work; people like presidential advisors Bill Daley, brother to the mayor, and ISOC's Vinton Cerf.
ISOC-Chicago is also forming Special Interest Groups (SIGs) in these following areas: ecommerce, community education, standards in technologies, internet application development, an inside education committee, emerging technologies, LAN/WAN. Belonging to or consulting a SIG offers a member a chance to interact with experts of their respective fields. ISOC-Chicago wants to open each meeting up to a member to present their knowledge in their respective field. ISOC-Chicago is also interested in sponsoring events and emerging technologies discussions.
The next meeting of ISOC-Chicago is January 18th, but if you are interested in joining, I encourage you to visit the ISOC-Chicago Website. If you are interested in learning more about the Internet Society as a whole, visit www.isoc.org.
Other notable websites used in the ISOC-Chicago
presentation include: