The hall, which lives on the Web, is the creation of the Internet Society, which describes itself as a nonprofit outfit "dedicated to ensuring that the Internet stays open, transparent and defined by you." The society, celebrating its 20th anniversary, is holding its Global INET 2012 conference in Geneva this week.

The Hall of Fame is the latest in what is becoming a crowded field of forums through which the tech industry recognizes accomplishments, as outlined last year by Network World in an extensive collection of stories [see "" and ""]. Other techie halls of fame include the Inventors Hall of Fame and the Computer History Museum's Hall of Fellows.

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Among the 33 people making up the inaugural Internet Hall of Fame class are "pioneers" such as Internet inventors Vinton Cerf [ on winning so many awards], Robert Kahn, Larry Roberts and Leonard Kleinrock, plus the likes of Internet and networking legends such as Jon Postel and Paul Baran.