Community involvement

Netnod plays an active role in shaping and securing the future of the Internet. We do this by working together with the Internet community and making significant contributions to Internet governance, policy and technical standards. Members of Netnod staff are active in local, regional and international forums and hold prominent positions in the Internet community.

IETF Standards

Over the years, Netnod staff have held positions such as chairs or co-chairs of various operations and DNS-related IETF working groups, and have been members of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).

We contribute to the standards development process through the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Netnod’s staff have been authors of, and contributors to, many Internet Drafts and RFCs including:

RFC8915: The Proposed Standard for Network Time Security (NTS)

RFC8753: Internationalised Domain Names for Applications (IDNA) Review for New Unicode Versions

RFC7720: DNS Root Name Service Protocol and Deployment Requirements

The operators community, Internet exchanges and DNS

Within the operators community, we participate in the Swedish Operators Forum (SOF), RIPE, APRICOT, LACNIC, NANOG, SANOG, MENOG, AFRINIC and many other forums. We are also involved with CENTR (the European TLD Association), APTLD (the Asia Pacific TLD Association) and LACTLD (the Latin American TLD Association). We are organisational members of the Internet Society (ISOC) and long-standing sponsors of PeeringDB.

Euro-IX

Netnod is a member of Euro-IX, the European Internet Exchange Association. Euro-IX was formed in May 2001 with the objective to further develop, strengthen and improve the IXP community. European Internet Exchange Points recognised a need to work together, coordinate activities, share information & publish statistics. Netnod is an active contributor to Euro-IX. Netnod also supports other smaller IXPs in developing countries through the Euro-IX Mentor IX programme.

European Peering Forum (EPF)

SInce 2005, the EPF has provided the peering community with a fruitful event that enables them to successfully establish new peers, and extend existing peering arrangements as well as share information and experience beneficial to the whole peering community.

The host IXes (AMS-IX, DE-CIX, LINX, and Netnod) alternate organisation of the EPF annually.

RSSF (Route Server Support Foundation)

Netnod supports the Netherlands based Route Server Support Foundation (RSSF) which was founded to develop and support route server software, and to further the quality and safety of the Internet routing system.

European ccTLD Association (CENTR)

Netnod has a close relationship with CENTR (with official Observer status) and participates in CENTR’s events and activities.

LACNIC

Netnod and LACNIC have a history of collaboration and a shared vision on the role root server instances should play in the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet. Through this collaboration, formalised by an MoU in 2015, there have been an extensive series of I-root site deployments and upgrades throughout the Americas.

DNS-OARC

Netnod is an active member of DNS-OARC and takes part in discussions regarding the advancement of the DNS protocol. We also work with DNS-OARC to engage with researchers and make DNS data available for research purposes.

Internet governance and policy related work

Netnod provides expert input in policy, regulatory and governance discussions that directly impact the context within which we operate. Our experts participate in industry events as panellists and keynote speakers as well as contributing to public policy processes. You can find an index of our public statements (since 2016) here.

ICANN

Over the years, Netnod staff have been members of ICANN’s Nominating Committee,and ICANN’s Registry Services Technical Evaluation Panel.

Through our role as one of the 12 root server operators in the world (i.root-servers.net), Netnod is represented in policy related groups of ICANN such as the Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) and the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC). The current chair position of ICANN's Customer Standing Committee (CSC) is currently held by a Netnod employee, and our staff regularly participate in various cross-community working groups.

Sweden

In Sweden we are active in policy development by participating in work hosted by, for example, the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences and the Swedish Network Users Society (SNUS), the Swedish Operators Forum (SOF) and any open consultation requests from the Swedish Government, The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) and others.

United Nations

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) ran from 2003-2005 and came at a pivotal time for the Internet.

It consisted of two United Nations (UN) summits and a series of PrepCom meetings. The WSIS had significant influence on discussions around Internet governance and the evolving idea of a multistakeholder approach.

Netnod contributed as one of the Root Server Operators and made important contributions to defending the bottom-up, industry self-regulatory Internet model.

An outcome of the WSIS process was the founding of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

The IGF has been held annually since 2006 and is a UN event that came out of the WSIS process. It is not a decision-making body but provides an open, inclusive and multistakeholder forum for dialogue related to Internet policy.

Netnod has participated in the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), which is entrusted with assisting in the preparations for the annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum. The MAG is made up of members from all stakeholder groups, representing governments, private sector and civil society, including the academic and technical communities, representing all regions. Members of the MAG are appointed by the UN Secretary General.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

We are active in the ITU-T when topics related to Netnod arise and we play an active role in the ITU-T Plenipotentiary. Held every four years, this is the highest policy-making body of the ITU, and is where EU Member States decide on the future role, focus and activities of the ITU. With a range of policy discussions and resolutions on a variety of subjects, some of the most important decisions taking place at the Plenipotentiary are related to the ITU’s role in matters of Internet governance.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Netnod is a member of the Internet Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC) to the OECD, which brings together the counsel and expertise of technically focused organisations in a decentralised and networked approach to policy formulation for the Internet economy,

Academia

Netnod engages with academia through the work we do with DNS-OARC, presenting at academic institutions and by offering a trainee program.

Industry events

Netnod staff play a prominent role within the technical community presenting at industry events globally. We also hold two Netnod meetings a year in Stockholm where we bring together 200 attendees to discuss the latest technical, policy and security developments in the Internet industry. You can find all the events we are attending and organising here. If you would like us to present at your event, please send an email to: info@netnod.se.

Pro bono DNS services

As an organisation working for the good of the Internet, Netnod offers limited DNS secondary services to certain TLDs on a pro bono basis. The goal is to contribute to a more accessible, stable and secure Internet by providing support to small TLDs with limited resources. If you are interested in Netnod’s pro bono DNS services, please contact us at dnsnode@netnod.se