Internet Governance Forum (IGF) - www.intgovforum.org
The IGF is a global body concerned with issues of public Internet policy and is convened by the UN General Secretary. It was created at the World Summit on the Information Society in 2005 as the result of a compromise between a governmental and a non-governmental concept of the administration of the Internet. The IGF is not a decision-making body and has no mandate to ratify international agreements and other legal documents; rather it creates the basis for decisions to be taken by other institutions such as ICANN, ITU and WIPO.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - www.itu.int
The ITU is a specialised UN agency with a leading role in the area of information and communication technologies at the international level. It creates technical standards to be implemented at the global level and supervises the use of the radio frequency spectrum in order to ensure interference-free international wireless communications and the free flow of information.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - www.icann.org
ICANN is the lead organisation for the administration of the Internet and its global structure, which consists of IP addresses, domain names (gTLD and ccTLD) and the DNS root servers.
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) - www.iana.org
IANA is tasked with the coordination of key elements of the operation of the Internet: the DNS Root Zone, IP addresses, AS numbers and Internet protocol registries. It operates under the auspices of ICANN.
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) - www.ietf.org
The IETF is a professional association concerned with the standardisation of the public key infrastructure (PKI) and the establishment of TCP/IP standards.
Internet Society (ISOC) - www.isoc.org
ISOC is a non-profit organisation dedicated to Internet-related standards, education, and policy for the benefit of all users around the world.
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) - www.iccwbo.org
The ICC is a key representative of the business sector in the process of global Internet governance.
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) - www.wipo.int
A specialised UN agency promoting protection of intellectual property, developing international standards and administering agreements.
Regional Internet registries (RIR)
The Regional Internet Registries are gathered under the umbrella of the Address Supporting Organization (ASO) and are allocated blocks of IP addresses by ICANN for the territory they cover:
- AfriNIC (Africa)
- APNIC (Asia-Pacific)
- ARIN (North America)
- LACNIC (Latin America and some Caribbean islands)
- RIPE NCC (Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia)
European IP Networks
Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE) - www.ripe.net
One of five global regional Internet registries, responsible for the territory of Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Accredited gTLD registrars
Companies to which ICANN has delegated the registration of gTLD domains, of which the largest are:
- Verisign (.COM, .NET, .NAME, .JOBS, etc.)
- Afilias (.INFO, .ORG, .MOBI, etc.)
National Internet registries
A ccTLD registry operator is an organisation to which ICANN has delegated the right to manage the national Internet domain registry (such as RNIDS). Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLD) are domain names connected with an international two-letter country code determined by ICANN (such as Serbia’s .RS ccTLD).