The 10^th INET features a number of new tracks that reflect the millennial mood and the ascendancy of wireless technology, such as “Internet Science and Technology for the 21^st Century” and “Mobile Internet and IP Network Applications”. The plenary panel discussion, “The Future of the Internet Layer”, revisits a topic (among others) that sparked debate at INET ’92, in Kobe—the exhaustion of the IPv4 address space.

Lynn St. Amour, who had previously served in the Internet Society’s Geneva office as global executive director and COO and as executive director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), succeeds Don Heath as ISOC President and CEO.  Her leadership of the organization is distinguished by tremendous growth in the breadth and reach of the Internet Society’s programs in the realms of Internet policy and governance and in global development. It is also marked by the solidification of ISOC’s relationship with and support of the IETF and its standards work.

Early in her tenure, St. Amour spearheads the Internet Society’s successful bid for the .ORG registry and establishes the Public Interest Registry (PIR) to oversee its operation. This will prove a turning point in ISOC’s fortunes, as it puts the organization on a much stronger financial footing, enabling more robust support of existing programs and partnerships and fostering the creation of new initiatives.

The St. Amour era also sees a growing emphasis on the Internet Society's status as an international organization, through the opening of Regional Bureaus throughout the world and through ISOC’s increased presence within other international organizations.

The first INET of the new millennium, INET ’01 institutes changes in the conference format, with events divided into three “Summits”—Technology, Uses of the Internet, and Governance and Regulation—meant to reflect the components and forces that shape the Internet: “[T]hose who use it, those who steer it and those who build it.” Coming after the burst of the dot-com bubble but at a time when the Internet is becoming ever more entrenched in all facets of life, the conference features plenary sessions on intellectual property on the Internet and on the lessons learned thus far in Internet self-governance. For the first time at an INET, an entire conference “thread” is devoted to the IETF.

The first INET to be held in the US capital, INET ‘02 comes at a time when, as the notes for the Welcoming Remarks have it, “[t]he Internet is at a crossroads. In the next year or two, critical choices will be made about Internet standards and Internet policy that will shape the Internet for years for come.” One feature of the conference, the IPv6 Forum's IPv6 Technology Deployment Summit, points to one of the factors that will shape the Internet’s future. Also up for debate is the future of the INETs themselves, as one of the closing sessions asks “How can we change and improve the format and focus of the conference?” Also noteworthy in this first post-9/11 INET is a panel discussion on “Security and Anti-terrorism," which seeks to address the questions “How are terrorists, national liberation movements, and computer virus writers using the Internet? What can and should law enforcement agencies do in response?”

SANOG is convened with a mission to bring together operators for educational purposes and to facilitate cooperation. SANOG provides a regional forum to discuss operational issues and technologies of interest to data operators in the South Asian Region. The main objective is educational, but at the same time gives vendors a chance to talk to engineers about newer technology and products on the sidelines. Engineers get to talk to each other about their experiences, to the benefit of the entire community. The Internet Society partners with SANOG in a number of initiatives and also serves as a sponsor of the organization, providing funding for the SANOG Fellowship Programme.

As an extension of its work in global and regional Internet development, the Internet Society initiates a series of workshops aimed at providing the knowledge and skills ccTLD operators need to build up and maintain high quality infrastructure and services, including the acceleration of DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) deployment in ccTLDs. The Internet Society continues to deepen its partnerships with registered ccTLD associations in order to extend capacity building on ccTLD operations, management, and DNSSEC implementation.

The African Network Information Center (AFRINIC) is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa, responsible for the distribution and management of Internet number resources such as IP addresses and ASN (Autonomou System Numbers) for the African region. After gaining provisional recognition by ICANN in October of 2004, AFRINIC becomes operational on 22 February 2005, and is granted final recognition by ICANN in April of that year.

AFRINIC’s mission is to provide professional and efficient distribution of Internet number resources to the African Internet community, to support Internet technology usage and development across the continent, and to strengthen Internet self-governance in Africa by encouraging a participatory policy development. The Internet Society partners with AFRINIC in a number of endeavors, including seminars and workshops aimed at spreading awareness and implementation of IPv6.

AfCHIX is founded by three-time Internet Society IETF fellow Dorcas Muthoni as a mentorship programme for African women, by African women. AfCHIX is aimed at ensuring, in Muthoni’s words, “that more young women can get training, feel technically up to date, and present themselves for leadership roles.” The Internet Society provides ongoing support of AfCHIX, co-sponsoring a mentorship programme and technical training workshops for women during AfNOG meetings.

In a departure from previous, “global” INETs, INET 2005 is a Middle East and Africa (MEA) regional conference, organized in conjunction with the Second Pan-Arab Regional Conference for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Cairo. In the session entitled 'The Internet: How it works, Why it works, Who makes it work?' representatives of the groups and organizations that enable and support the operation of the Internet infrastructure give first-hand information about just how the Internet coordination processes have evolved and how they work today. Speakers also include respected and experienced specialists from the MEA region.

First convened in 2004, PACNOG holds its first meeting in Fiji in 2005. The Internet Society provides early and ongoing support for the group and its workshops.

The Internet Society pilots the Fellowship to the Internet Engineering Task Force programme at IETF 66 in Montreal. The success of this and a second pilot at IETF 67 lead the Internet Society to formalize the  Fellowship in 2007, as a means to identify and foster potential future leaders from emerging and developing economies and provide an opportunity for networking with individuals from around the world with similar technical interests. The program is also aimed at raising global awareness and understanding of—and participation in—the IETF and its work.

Recognizing, in the words of Internet Society President and CEO Lynn St. Amour, that “all that’s global is truly local," the Internet Society embarks on a regionalization strategy, spearheaded by the creation of Regional Bureaus. First to be established, in Addis Ababa, is the Regional Bureau in Africa.

The Africa Bureau devotes particular focus to issues of Internet education (access and development), cybersecurity, mobile Internet, the cost of online connection, and policy in support of the development of an open and user-defined Internet.

Regional Bureaus play a key role in driving a full range of operational activities such as policy, technology, capacity development, and membership, in a manner tailored to unique local needs. They are also instrumental in building local collaboration and engagement in the Internet Society’s mission, including supporting the growth and empowerment of chapters.

The Internet Society establishes its second Regional Bureau with the opening of its Latin America and Caribbean Bureau in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Bureau, which subsequently moves to Montevideo, Uruguay, focuses on educational programmes aimed at building network access and development skills; policy engagement and consultation in the realms increasing high-speed Internet access, promoting Internet innovation, and tackling the challenges of the digital economy; and partnerships with private sector, educational, and civil society entities to achieve goals such as IPv6 deployment.

With its opening in January 2008, the Asia-Pacific Bureau becomes the Internet Society’s third regional office. Among the areas of focus for the Bureau, which moves to Singapore in May 2012, are programmes aimed at helping engineers in developing countries improve their skill sets and the networks in their home countries; regional standards and forum involvement in areas such as IPv6 adoption; and developing deeper relationships with APEC TEL, OECD, and other partners in the policymaking process.

The Internet Society and the Organization for African Unity (OAU, a.k.a. African Union) sign a memorandum of understanding to tackle emerging Internet issues—such as Internet standards, IPv6, and Internet governance—at the continental and global level.

Launched at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom World Conference in Geneva, the Internet Society’s Next Generation Leaders (NGL) programme offers the world’s next generation of Internet leaders a unique opportunity to advance their skills and accelerate their careers. The programme is designed to prepare young professionals for leadership and to bridge the boundaries between business, technical development, policy, and governance on local, regional, and international levels.

Aimed at emerging talents between the ages of 20 and 40, NGL blends coursework and practical experience to help prepare young professionals from around the world to become the next generation of Internet technology, policy, and business leaders.

The Internet Society’s Regional Bureau in North American is opened in Washington, DC. The Bureau focuses on engagement and consultation with policymakers on issues such as US and Canadian strategies to increase high-speed Internet access, promoting Internet innovation, and confronting the challenges of the digital economy; serving as an important voice encouraging continued commitment to private-sector leadership, a collaborative approach to technology development, and the free flow of information online; and developing partnerships that demonstrate strong support for principles of openness and bottom-up decision-making in the regional policy dialogue.

Despite Africa’s growing regional network infrastructure, most of African cross-border traffic exchange is exchanged in Europe and North America. The Internet Society organizes the first African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) as a multi-stakeholder conference to address interconnection, peering, and traffic exchange challenges and opportunities for Africa.

Held annually, AfPIF aims to foster national and cross-border interconnection opportunities by providing a forum where key players from infrastructure and service providers, IXPs, regulators, and policy makers can engage in a relaxed but businesslike environment, sharing their experiences and learning from experts in the field.

With the Internet Society as a founding partner, the first meeting of CaribNOG convenes a rich community of network operators dedicated to exchanging technical information and experiences related to the management of IP networks in the Caribbean region.

CaribNOG collaborates with regional and international organizations and stakeholders to facilitate capacity building and professional networking activities. Its initiatives include technical workshops, seminars, research papers, and annual meetings.

The first meeting of Network Operators Group of Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNOG) convenes technologist and operational experts from leading Internet providers, equipment manufacturers, organizations responsible for Internet coordination, and the academic networking community—providing a forum for the discussion and exchange of information on key operational issues impacting the Internet in the region.

LACNOG is an initiative of the Internet Society and the region’s Internet community who, seeing a need for a pan-regional network operators group in Latin America, work together to make it happen. The event brings together people in the region responsible for the creation, maintenance, and operation of Internet networks and provides a forum for discussion, coordination, and the exchange of best practices between networking professionals.

The Deploy360 Programme serves as a bridge between the IETF standards process and adoption of those standards by the global operations community for such technologies as IPv6, DNSSeC, and Routing Resiliency and Security.

IPv6 deployment efforts, in particular, confront the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses and deepen the Internet Society’s commitment to deploy IPv6 in developing countries via hands-on training workshops, facilitation of experience-sharing among operators, and increased awareness of IPv6 deployment imperatives.

To celebrate its 20^th anniversary, the Internet Society holds its first global INET conference since 2004. Global INET 2012 carries the theme “Meeting at the Crossroads: Imagining the Future Internet” and, as a prelude, features a collaborative leadership exchange centered on this same topic. The conference serves as the forum for the inaugural inductions into the newly created Internet Hall of Fame and closes with keynote remarks by IHOF inductee and founding president of ISOC Vint Cerf.