Mission
The charitable purpose of the Internet Stiftung is to promote the internet in Austria and an unrestricted and orderly access to networks and services in compliance with international obligations. In particular, the Internet Stiftung is responsible for the administration of the .at domain.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of the Internet Stiftung conducts the business of the Foundation. The Board manages and represents the foundation vis-à-vis third parties and is responsible for the attainment of the mission of the Foundation.
Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees performs the control of the foundation according to a supervisory board. It appoints the Board of Directors. Two members of the Board of Trustees are appointed by ISPA and one member is appointed by the University of Vienna.
Auditor
Andreas Lummerstorfer
Advisory Board for Domains
The Advisory Board for Domains advises the Board of Directors on fundamental issues concerning the allocation of internet domain names. It consists of national and international experts, as well as representatives of internet users and service providers. The members of the Advisory Board are appointed by the Board of Trustees upon proposal of the Board of Directors.
More about the Domain Advisory Board
History
The Internet Stiftung was established in 2000 by ISPA, the Association of Internet Service Providers Austria. It is formally a private Austrian foundation with a charitable purpose. The trigger for the establishment of the foundation was the increasing number of registrations of .at-domains. Initially, these registrations were administered by the University of Vienna. Due to the rapid increase of registrations and the effort involved, it became necessary to organize the process within the framework of a company. For this purpose, nic.at was founded by ISPA in 1998 to perform the registration of .at-domains. However, the honorary management of nic.at by the ISPA Board members also soon reached its limits. In pursuit of reliable long-term service to the Austrian internet community which required sufficient management capacities and resources, the Internet Stiftung was established. nic.at was incorporated into the Internet Stiftung as a full subsidiary. The chosen structure corresponds to that found in other EU countries (e.g., the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden).