The DIY ISP initiative, short for Do-It-Yourself Internet Service Provider, is a loose federation of small-scale ISPs from around the world. Its main goals are: facilitating communication between the various local ISP initiatives, providing technical and legal documentation, and helping the creation of new initiatives.

There are plenty of small, DIY, non-conventional (and mostly unknown) ISPs all over the world, which are worth knowing about. For the sake of decentralisation, there should be even more of them! Building an ISP from scratch is entirely within the range of motivated individuals.

Participating ISPs highly value transparency, network neutrality, and a respectful attitude towards their users (including privacy). For a more complete description, see Ethics.

Most participants are not-for-profit, in the form of various legal entities (association, Eingetragener Verein, etc). For-profit structures are also welcome, provided they share the same Ethics.

The DIY ISP idea was launched in late 2012. It gained momentum near the end of 2013, thanks to a renewed interest at the 30th Chaos Communication Congress.