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Internet Systems Consortium

Organization
Type Non-profit
Focus Root Server Operator, Open Source Software
Region NA
Country
  • United States of America
City 950 Charter Street
Redwood City, CA 94063
Founded 1994
Founders Paul Vixie, Carl Malamud, Rick Adams
Websites

The Internet Systems Consortium, or, ISC is a non-profit which supports "the infrastructure of the universal connected self-organizing Internet—and the autonomy of its participants by developing and maintaining core production quality software, protocols, and operations".[1]

ISC is known for developing and maintaining the production quality BIND and DHCP Open Source software. ISC has expanded its focus to include enhancing the stability of the global DNS via reliable F-root name server operations. ISC is also involved with protocol development, such as facilitating the transition to IPv6. It if affiliated with OARC for DNS[2]

History[edit | edit source]

ISC began as the Internet Software Consortium Inc. in 1994; a decade later it changed its name to likely highlight its expansion beyond solely software based services.[3]. The founders of ISC believed that BIND's integral part in enhancing and supporting the Internet needed to be fostered by an independent entity. IANA authorized ISC to be a root name server operator, which allowed ISC to support the use of BIND by root name servers.

ISC has become a home for additional software systems, like INN or Lynx; and they have also created their own, such as DHCP and OpenReg.[4]

Expansion[edit | edit source]

Business has expanded beyond root name service; and ISC is now know for its Internet Hosting facilities for other open source projects, secondary name service for TLDs, and a DNS Operations, Analysis and Research Center (OARC).[5]

Funding[edit | edit source]

ISC was created through a grant, and it continues to survive on grants, Guild member fees, sponsors, and donations.[6] They also provide paid support for their software, as well as training.[7]

All of ISC's software is available for download from its website.

ICANN[edit | edit source]

ISC was the first root server to enter into a Mutual Responsibilities Agreement with ICANN. While the world's dozen root servers have long played a vital role within the Internet community and ICANN's work, there had not been a mutual agreement of this nature until January 4th, 2008.[8]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ISC About
  2. ICANN
  3. ISC
  4. ISC History
  5. ISC History
  6. ISC History
  7. Interview at San Francisco ICANN, 3/13/11
  8. ICANN
Date foundedStores the date that an object was founded, normalized to the "Month DD, YYYY" format.
1994 +
Has ICANN regionAssociates an object with an ICANN-determined Geographic Region.
Has cityStores the city associated with an object. This value does not get normalized.
950 Charter Street
Redwood City, CA 94063 +
Has countryAssociates a page with a country. Territory names are extracted from ISO 3166, "Country Codes".
Has entity typeSpecifies the primary classification or fundamental type of the page's subject (e.g., Event, Organization, Person).
Organization +
Has focusAssociates an object with a focus theme. Not normalized.
Root Server Operator, Open Source Software +
Has organization typeAssociates an organization with its organizational or legal type (e.g., Non-profit, Government agency, Commercial).