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IEEE at NETmundial: The Internet's Ongoing Success Demands Openness, Transparency, and Inclusiveness in StandardizationPISCATAWAY, N.J. --(Business Wire)-- IEEE (News - Alert), the world's largest professional organization and globally recognized technology standards setting body dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, today announced that it urged openness, transparency and inclusiveness in standardization to fuel the Internet's ongoing success at NETmundial, the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance which took place 23-24 April 2014 in São Paulo, Brazil. "The Internet is an economic and social phenomenon that touches billions of lives worldwide every day, and has created a new culture of border-crossing e-commerce, information sharing, and community operations," said IEEE President J. Roberto de Marca. "Consensus-based standards developed in an open, transparent and inclusive process that ensures voluntary, market-driven adoption have and must continue to contribute to this success story." IEEE has been at the forefront of the Internet since its early days. At NETmundial, Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist for Google (News - Alert) and IEEE Fellow, noted that IEEE published the first paper about the TCP/IP Internet protocol in 19741. IEEE standards such as IEEE 802.3™ "Standard for Ethernet" and IEEE 802.11™ wireless local area network (WLAN) standard2 (that enables products that are often branded as "Wi-Fi®") are a fundamental part of the Internet's technical foundation, enabling the movement of almost all data that crosses the platform. IEEE embraces the value of an open and globally coherent Internet. "To achieve this objective, the underlying technology platforms must be open, broadly available and, most importantly, trustworthy," said Konstantinos Karachalios, managing director of the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA). "People have to be able to trust the Internet, and the notions of privacy that we have come to expect in our everyday life must be reflected and respected in cyberspace as well. Technical communities must rise up to meet these expectations and assure privacy and security in the Internet by technical design." IEEE, through its IEEE-SA, recently issued a statement calling on "all stakeholders to support the open character and integrity of the Internet as well as to work on solutions and processes that can restore users' trust to its technical foundationsthrough a model that embraces and embodies openness, transparency and inclusiveness and technical standards that reflect the OpenStand (www.open-stand.org) paradigm of a multi-stakeholder model of collaboration and consensus building." "IEEE anticipates the potential for the current tensions around the Internet to increase," observed IEEE President de Marca. He further emphasized, "IEEE is firmly committed to mobilizing and supporting its global and local communities of technical professionals and associated stakeholders to work on building improved technology solutions that address privacy and security issues to rebuild trust and confidence in the technical foundations of the Internet." "NETmundial was a timely and seminal event that is certain to have enduring influence in the ongoing Internet governance debate. It was clear from the discussions at NETmundial that the objective of the international community gathered at the event is to achieve, through extensive collaboration among stakeholders, an open, trusted, secure and resilient Internet for all," noted de Marca. "IEEE was invited to contribute to these intensifying global discussions, and I was proud to represent the organization in my home country and to participate in the NETmundial event. The IEEE is ready and willing to be part of this global initiative." A "NETmundial Multistakeholder Statement" was released at the conclusion of the event, which attracted 1,480 stakeholders from 97 nations.3 About IEEE IEEE, a large, global technical professional organization, is dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers, and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics. Learn more at http://www.ieee.org. About the IEEE Standards Association The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting body within IEEE, develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stakeholder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 500 standards under development. For more information, visit http://standards.ieee.org/. 1 Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn, A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication (IEEE Transactions on Communications, May 1974) 2 IEEE 802.11™ "Standard for Information technology--Telecommunications and information exchange between systems Local and metropolitan area networks--Specific requirements Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications" |
