Subject: n-1-4-003.01 Internet: The Living Network* by Anthony-M. Rutkowski This issue marks the end of volume one, the conclusion of the Internet Society's first year, and a period of remarkable evolution in the life of the Internet. The agglomeration called the Internet has clearly become much more than just a networking technology. It is a means for individuals and organizations of all kinds to individually or collectively share information, think, act, and respond to external environments. In many respects, it has become a kind of collective human organism that continues to grow and evolve at an unparalleled rate. This great level of individual and organizational involvement and committment from the bottom-up in the internetworking technologies and their use spills over in the standards making, in the development of new applications, in the creation and operation of high performance, low cost networks. It also spills over in the activities of the Internet Society. Internet Society News was created to be more than just a chronicle of Internet developments, but rather a means to help understand all that the Internet is and represents. We have been most fortunate to have so many people around the world who are willing every few weeks to take "verbal snapshots" of their part of the Internet and share them with our readership. I thank all of them for their contributions. The coming year holds even more promise; and ISOC News intends itself to evolve its coverage, perspectives, form and distribution. By the middle of next year, every computer operating system including the PC mass market will have TCP/IP provided as the ubiquitous open systems glue. The USA's National Science Foundation which had been providing the largest national Internet backbone just announced a transition to private-sector provisioning. Prominent national and regional figures and bodies worldwide have focussed on the Internet environment as critical national infrastructure. We have begun to see Internet video and audio multicasts. The present growth curve of Internet hosts intersects with the human population curve in the year 2001. A significant fraction of that population is already now using and evolving the Internet organism. Clearly 1993 should be challenging and exciting! *From a forthcoming book by the same name.