The Internet has evolved from an experimental network for engineers into an essential social infrastructure that influences every aspect of people’s lives. Despite such a profound transformation, academic societies have so far tended to consider the Internet only within narrow specialized research fields. However, this makes it difficult to grasp the fundamental nature of the Internet. For this reason, many Internet-related activities and technological developments continue to take place outside academia. At the same time, many talented individuals engaged in Internet technologies feel alienated from academic societies and hold them in low regard.
This situation also resonates with the recent trend of companies distancing themselves from academic organizations. To break away from this reality, we propose the establishment of a new technical committee that aims to embrace a wide range of Internet technologies and their social impacts as part of academic activity.
Furthermore, this technical committee seeks to establish a process through which academia can incorporate diverse Internet activities and technological developments. By emphasizing activities that embody the free spirit of the Internet—unbound by conventional frameworks—it aspires to lay the foundation for exploring new forms of academic societies in the coming century.
We sincerely invite all members to actively participate and engage in this initiative.
| Research Area | Topics |
| Internet Applications and Society | Green IT, educational applications, medical applications, support for the elderly and disabled, business continuity, copyright management, Internet broadcasting, network neutrality |
| Internet Interconnection and Operations Management | Internet operation and management technologies, configuration automation, traffic control technologies, scalability, interoperability, QoS, identity management (IDM), enterprise networks, campus information systems |
| Network Architecture and Protocols | Next-generation networks, overlay and P2P networks, multihoming, network virtualization, IPv6, routing, transport protocols, wireless Internet protocols, mobility support |
| Internet Applications and Middleware | Construction and use of research and development testbeds, sensor applications, video streaming, open technologies, mashups, rich clients, cloud computing |
| Internet Security | Security policies and information ethics, protection of personal information, countermeasures against unsolicited email (SPAM), traceback technologies, VPN (Virtual Private Networks), PKI (Public Key Infrastructure), IDS/IPS (Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems) |