Dear Readers,

In December 2021, JPNIC celebrated the 30th anniversary of the establishment of its predecessor, JNIC. In the past 30 years, the Internet has evolved from being used mainly as a research and education network to a commercial network, and now it has become a social infrastructure without which our lives would be unfeasible. Coming through the social changes surrounding the Internet and the impact of COVID-19, JPNIC is transforming itself in order to support the Internet in the future as it has so far. We report on the recent changes at JPNIC in Special Article 1.

In Special Article 2, we give you an overview of "Internet Week 2021", which was held in mid-November in 2021. Its theme was "The Shape of Tomorrow". We chose this theme to highlight our spirit of actively working toward a new era that will surely arrive in the near future. We hope that Internet Week 2021 helped you find hints about the "shape of tomorrow" and helped you create your future. It has been 25 years since Internet Week was first held in 1997, and to commemorate the 25th anniversary, we prepared three special events: "Internet Week Basic on Demand", which provides content on the basics of Internet technologies, the "Quarter-Century Anniversary Party", to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the event, and the "Internet Week Digital Archive", a searchable database of past Internet Week presentations. We also report on these three events.

In "Prologue to the Internet: its Technologies and Services", the "JP29-type-robot "Nic-kun" and Dr. Netson of the Internet research institute explain the development of image formats. As the Internet became more widely used, image data had to be handled by a variety of terminals with different display capabilities. This has led to the development of general-purpose and model-independent image formats. Let's take a look at how image formats have evolved over the years.

In "Pick Out!", we introduce featured articles from the JPNIC blog. This time, we feature articles about WHOIS search. As a registry that manages IP addresses and AS numbers, JPNIC offers a WHOIS search that can be searched by anyone to discover information on IP addresses and AS numbers that we have allocated to operators. We would like to introduce a series of articles about JPNIC's WHOIS search. For the full text, visit https://blog.nic.ad.jp/2021/6990/ !!

"Introducing JPNIC Members" focuses on a particular JPNIC member engaged in interesting activities. This time, we visited STARNET Co., Ltd., headquartered in Chuo-ku, Osaka. They were established in April 1986 at the request of Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. to the member companies of the Kansai Economic Federation for shared use of high-speed digital lines. This year marks the 36th year since their establishment. They are one of the oldest companies in the Internet industry, having started their ISP business in the early days of the Internet i n Japan. Since around 2000, the company has made a brilliant transition to a network integrator with strengths in a wide range of fields. During the interview, what impressed us was their ability to make high-quality proposals to their customers, which is one of their strengths, as well as their efforts to continuously gather information and adopt new technologies, and their passionate mindset of always thinking about their customers. We enjoyed the interview conducted in a very cheerful atmosphere punctuated by laughter. Time flew by so fast.

"The Internet Loves You" is a corner in which we introduce a person who is active in the Internet industry. This time, we introduce Mr. Taiji Tsuchiya. He manages the YouTube channel "show int", while working as a network engineer for a foreign-affiliated company. And he is also actively involved in community activities such as JANOG. He moved to Hiroshima from the Tokyo metropolitan area and his personal time is spent focusing on raising his children. He talks about his career development and motivation for his various activities. Mr. Tsuchiya's YouTube channel: show int https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpO3RcIrPaDJJ0Q3cbZrvZA

In our "10 Minutes Internet Course", we explore the keyword "electronic signatures". Mr. Naoto Miyaji of LangEdge, Inc. explains the technology trends surrounding electronic signatures in the remote work era. COVID-19 has forced many of you to work remotely, and you must have faced the problems of "stamping" and "signing". Since electronic signatures are closely related to technologies and laws, his article provides a legal explanation of what electronic signatures are in the first place, and introduces the technological trends that make electronic signatures possible.

In addition, you'll also find "Internet Topics", "JPNIC Activity Reports", "Statistics" etc., for the past several months. If you have any comments or feedback, please feel free to contact us at jpnic-news@nic.ad.jp. Your comments are greatly appreciated!!