Subject: Simple Question: What/who is the "Internet Community" ?

From: "Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 09:24:50 +0800

Hello:

I am just wondering, what/who the "Internet Community" is. Is it
a generic term? Is it related, say with sandals, beard, T-shirt
et. al.? Is a lay person also a part of the "Internet 
Community" ? The context is these two following statements:

== ZCZC == F.31 =================================================

(1) IANA's page <http://www.iana.org/faqs.html>:

    3.  Who gives you the authority to do this? 
  
        [...] The INTERNET COMMUNITY is continuing to provide 
        the authority. [...]

(2) BCP-9 (RFC-2026) The Internet Standard Process ver 3.0
    <http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2026.txt>

    1.  INTRODUCTION

        The Internet Standards process is an activity of the 
        Internet Society that is organized and managed on behalf 
        of the INTERNET COMMUNITY by the Internet Architecture 
        Board (IAB) and the Internet Engineering Steering Group 
        (IESG). [...]
       
== NNNN == EOF
==================================================                

-- 
Rahmat M.Samik-Ibrahim VLSM-TJT http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/6825
Offensive is often the best defense --- Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest

---

From: Fred Baker <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 10:09:40 -0800

At 09:24 AM 2/25/99 +0800, Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim wrote:
>Community" ?

It is, in essence, the people who have used, built, and run the Internet
for these many moons. It is those who make it go, and find it in their
interest to invest effort into making it go - for business, research, or
whatever reason.

Realistically, although it tries to serve their needs, it de-emphasizes
low-end users, which are a far larger group, but for the most part neither
knows nor cares that the IAB, IESG, DNS, or much of anything else exist;
users are represented in this community by folks from some companies and
academia. Frankly, although my Mom uses the Internet, I don't think she
would consider herself "part of an Internet community" as much as she would
consider herself a "client of a specific ISP" and a "member of the
community of her friends, some of which use the Internet."

In the IANA case, I would understand that primarily to mean "those who
direct requests to IANA for address blocks", which is to say RIPE, ARIN,
APNIC, etc, and those businesses and other interests which in turn use them.

In the BCP-9 case, standards are developed to make the system run well; the
system in turn serves its users. Who would like the system to run well? The
Standards Process is put in their for their benefit.

---

From: Fred Baker <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 10:09:40 -0800