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It's all about standards. XHTML, XML, HTTP, FTP... what would we do without them? But who makes these standards standard? Today we take a look at the organizations that make these standards and what their role is the creation of tomorrow's Internet.
The explosion of the Internet into the daily lives of millions of people around the world has depended on a number of things, but primarily, making sure that people using different platforms and systems can communicate has been one of the most important. Setting the standards that have enabled the network of networks to involve into today's sprawling E-tropolis has been central to creating the Internet that we know and love. Where would we be without the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), for example? Would the vast repository of knowledge and information be half as useful without the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to logically link it together? Even the languages used to create Web pages must conform to some standard, or we would need to use a different browser every time we wanted to open a new Web page. Who decides these standards?
A standard can be defined as a specification that is stable and well understood, has multiple, useful applications both independently and in conjunction with other standards or systems, and is used and supported publicly. The specifications for new standards are circulated between the various standards bodies and to the internet public in general initially as RFC (Requests For Comments) documents. These documents are stored on publicly accessible sites across the Web.
Internet standards bodies are the key to ensuring that the Internet is propagated with open, usable standards. There are many different standards bodies around which perform a variety of functions and this article is intended to introduce you to some of the more prominent ones.
Next: The Internet Architecture Board >>
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