About the Internet Way of Networking [Video]

Where Does the Internet Way of Networking Come From?

The Internet as we know it is a set of choices. When it’s working as intended, any user can visit any part of it, no matter where they are in the world. Services and applications can be built on top of it, and connect with others that follow the same rules and norms.

The Internet Way of Networking (or IWN) is the Internet Society’s description of the basic architecture and practices of the Internet. In 2019, we needed a framework that would help our community of experts and advocates to analyze decisions and policies that would affect those practices and ways of connecting. We wanted to encourage the Internet community to start adding impact assessments to their advocacy work—similar to Environmental Impact Assessments.

When we completed the work to define what makes the Internet work as a global network, we realized it wasn’t enough just to protect the basic technical …