Dear colleagues, I write in my role as the President and CEO of the Internet Society. Some of you will be aware that the Internet Society announced last November a proposed transaction involving Public Interest Registry (PIR) and Ethos Capital. This is relevant to the IETF because the transaction would have yielded an endowment of over a billion dollars, which would have supported ISOC (and hence the IETF) essentially forever. Many of you will have heard by now that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has witheld its consent to this transaction. I have written about it at https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2020/05/our-work-to-make-the-internet-for-everyone-marches-on/. The reason I'm posting here is to reiterate the commitment I made when the transaction was announced: the Internet Society is committed to funding the IETF, and that will not waver. This news is obviously not what I had hoped, but the IETF is not threatened by it. The IETF list is probably not the best place to discuss the transaction or one's views about the Internet Society, and I won't engage in such discussions here. Members of the Internet Society are welcome to discuss such issues on Internet Society lists. Membership in the Internet Society is free of charge. Best regards, A -- Andrew Sullivan President & CEO, Internet Society sullivan@xxxxxxxx +1 416 731 1261
