Internet Society – Bulgaria is a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

(NGO) for public benefit, founded on December 4, 1995, in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

by a group of

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n Internet professionals.

History

ISOC-Bulgaria was founded in 1995. It became known worldwide in 1999, when it successfully sued the government of

Ivan Kostov Ivan Yordanov Kostov ( ) (born 23 December 1949) is a Bulgarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 1997 to 2001. A member of the SDS party, which he led from 1994 to 2001, he was previously Minister of Finance from 1990 ...

against the proposed licensing of the Internet Service Providers in Bulgaria. In 2001, through ISOC-Bulgaria's influence, Voice over Internet Protocol (

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

) remained outside of the monopoly of the national telecom, which allowed a great variety of new Internet service providers to start operating in Bulgaria.

Activities

ISOC-Bulgaria has been involved in a number of projects, related to usage and promotion of free and open source software, among them: * - the Free and Open Source Software Project for South East Europe; * - towards Open Source Software adoption and dissemination; * - Free/Libre/Open Source Software: Worldwide impact study. In 2005 — 2006 ISOC-Bulgaria launched the Bulgarian version of

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

. ISOC Bulgaria was a key player during the WSIS (2002–2005). Before that, in 1999 and in 2001 through its influence, Bulgaria became the first country to legally accept full freedom of access to the Internet by changing its Telecommunications Law, which leaves the domain name system and the IP Address allocation outside of the control of the government. ISOC Bulgaria has been actively involved in the Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI), headed by George Sadowsky, and has contributed to formation of governmental IT-policy in a number of countries, not only in Bulgaria. Since 2002 ISOC Bulgaria has been running, together with Access to Information Program, the Bulgarian edition of the

Big Brother Awards The Big Brother Awards (BBAs) are List of mocking awards, mocking awards that recognize "the government and private sector organizations ... which have done the most to threaten personal privacy". They are named after the George Orwell charac ...

, with their latest edition in 2019. The awards are given to institutions, organizations and individuals, who violate citizens' privacy in Bulgaria.

Members

Among hundreds of its members are former Bulgarian presidents

Georgi Parvanov Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov (, ) (born 28 June 1957) is a Bulgarian historian and politician who was President of Bulgaria from 2002 to 2012. He was elected after defeating incumbent Petar Stoyanov in the second round of the November 2001 pres ...

and Peter Stoyanov, former prime ministers

Sergey Stanishev Sergey Dmitrievich Stanishev ( ; born 5 May 1966) is a Bulgarian politician who served Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 2005 to 2009. A member of the Socialist Party, which he led from 2001 to 2014, he later served as Member of the European Pa ...

and

, many politicians, IT-experts, journalists, and many others.

Board

ISOC- Bulgaria board consists of: *

Veni Markovski Veni Milanov Markovski is a Bulgarian Internet entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO (until 2002) of the Bulgarian ISP bol.bg. He is currently ICANN's Vice-President for UN engagement, based in New York. Biography Markovski is a graduate of the La ...

- chairman * Dimitar Ganchev - vice-chairman * Georgi Kirov - member

More information

ISOC-Bulgaria is an official chapter of the international

Internet Society The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American non-profit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. It has offices in Reston, Virginia, United States, and Geneva, Switzerland. Organization The Internet Society ...

, based in Reston, Virginia and Geneva, Switzerland. More information can be found at ISOC-Bulgaria's web site, and on their blog.Official blog of ISOC-Bulgaria
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Internet Society - Bulgaria Internet governance organizations History of the Internet Internet in Bulgaria Digital rights organizations Internet Society Organizations established in 1995