Re: Definition of ISPs

[Barbara Fraser <byf@cert.org>]

At 01:49 AM 7/14/99 -0700, Bill Manning wrote:
>> 
>> In this document, we define ISPs to include organizations in the business
>> of providing Internet connectivity or other Internet services including,
>> but not restricted to, Web hosting services, content providers and email
>> service providers. We do not include in our definition of an ISP
>                     ---------------------------------------------           
>         Why do you exclude this?
>	

The intent was to not include organizations that do their own web server or
email server, etc. For example, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI)
has its own web server and email server but we don't consider them an ISP
for the purposes of this document. If the SEI made those services available
to third parties who then needed to evaluate (for some meaning of that
word) the quality/nature of those services, then they would be included in
our definition. As an employee, I have no choice in where I get those
services, I take what is given to me. These documents are for consumption
by people who have choice of who they contract to for service, and for
organizations who are in the business of making services available to
entities outside their organization. Clear as mud?

As I sit here thinking about this, I can imagine that I might hope that our
internal IT department were sensitive to the ideas included in these
documents. I also suspect that most of the concerns that would be relevant
to internal IT departments would probably be covered in the SSH addendum
document.

Barb