ution, and so on. One of the longest standing organizations with Internet oversight authority is the Internet Activities Board (IAB), which governs adminis- trative and technical activities on the Internet. It works closely with the Internet Society (ISOC), a nongovernmental organization established in 1992 that coordinates such Internet functions as internetworking and applications development. The ISOC is also chartered to provide over- sight and communications for the Internet Activities Board. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is one of the best known Internet organizations and is part of the IAB. The IETF establishes working groups responsible for technical activities involving the Inter- net, such as writing technical specifications and protocols. Because of the organization's early, valuable commitment to the future of the Internet, the ISO accredited the organization as an "official" international stan- dards body at the end of 1994. Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. Transport Technologies Transport Technologies On a similar front, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has no officially recognized role but has taken a leading role in the develop- ment of standard protocols for the World Wide Wed to promote its evo- lution and ensure its interoperability. The organization has more than 400 member organizations and is currently leading the technical development of the Web. Other smaller organizations play important roles as well. These include the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), which provides strategic direction to the IETF and is part of the IAB; the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), which engages in research that affects the evolution of the future Internet; the Internet Engineering Planning Group (IEPG), which coordinates worldwide Internet operations and helps Internet Service Providers (ISPs) a