The Internet Society’s North American Bureau, to which ISOC-NY is affiliated, is lending initial support to a U.S. industry effort to form a Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG) to develop consensus on broadband network management practices or other related technical issues that can affect users’ Internet experience. This is a collaborative industry effort to identify and address operational issues that have been at the heart of some of the recent issues attracting governmental attention. Constructively, this activity could result in organized, forward-looking discussion driven by key stakeholders and also provide opportunities to educate and inform policy makers by shedding light on underlying technical issues from the perspectives of diverse stakeholders.

While this is initially a US-centric activity, it is our expectation that this could yield useful results and/or a model that will be effective more broadly across the globe. It is certainly our intention to inject that broader, global perspective into their discussions.

The group has announced initial plans to form the BITAG and commit to work out details regarding the operational and organizational structure of the BITAG over the coming weeks. This is the early stages of the effort and many details have yet to be worked out but the Internet Society believes this is an important opportunity to address key operational challenges facing the Internet user experience.

ISOC participation in this endeavor will be led out of ISOC’s North American Bureau and the office of the Chief Internet Technology Officer.

As the group is formed, the Internet Society will bring a global, user- centric approach to the issues and will work to ensure that any output is appropriately integrated with the work of existing Internet standards activities. The creation of the BITAG addresses an industry need that falls outside the IETF remit but it is important to integrate the output with relevant activities by the IETF and other standards bodies.

Contact:

Sally Shipman Wentworth
Regional Bureau Manager, North America
Internet Society (ISOC)
(703) 439-2146
wentworth*at*isoc.org
www.isoc.org