Internet Governance

The much discussed topic of last 6 years among many stakeholders and yet to reach anywhere near to consensus is Internet Governance. It sets out to answer questions that bother the minds of many.

Some of the pertinent questions that continues to be debated are:
· What is this Internet Governance all about?
· Do we really need it? Who will govern it?
· What is going to be the scope of Governance? And, last but not the least, Whom do we need Internet Governance for?”

The Controversy

The position of the US Department of Commerce as the controller of the Internet gradually attracted criticism from those who felt that its control should reflect its international nature.

When the IANA (the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) functions were handed to a new US non-profit Corporation called ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), controversy increased. ICANN decision making process was criticised by some observers as being secretive and unaccountable. When the directors' posts which had previously been elected by the "at-large" community of Internet users were abolished, some feared the worst. ICANN stated that they were merely streamlining decision-making processes, and developing a structure suitable for the modern Internet.

Other areas of controversy included the creation and control of generic top-level domains (.com, .org, and possible new ones, such as .biz or .xxx), the control of country-code domains, recent proposals for a large increase in ICANN's budget and responsibilities, and a proposed "domain tax" to pay for this.

There were also suggestions that individual governments should have more control, or that the International Telecommunication Union or the United Nations should have a role in Internet governance

Definitional difficulties

These much-heated discussion points, introduced first in 2003 in WSIS Geneva, led to the need for outlining the proper “Problem Definition” before actually discussing these points. The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) came into being soon after, and the definition given to help understand the first question, “What is IG?” goes like:

Internet governance is the development and application by Governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.

The definition however doesn’t define the process, the actual scope or outline the complex and undecided issues. It was thus not a consensus definition, and received the criticism from many.
Several attempts were made to understand the scope of IG and the issues involved such as, control over the basic infrastructure and standardization of Internet, socio – cultural issues like content control, privacy protection, cultural values, education and also the development aspects such as digital divide, technology transfer and many more. I am going to delve only upon the socio–cultural and development aspects of IG with a learning perspective.

Keep watching for more...

Go Daddy

Talking about Internet Governance before we get insights from Himanshu, I was wondering as a lead up to the discussion, do we really need a Daddy/ Big Brother to govern us?

And since we can pull out a zillion reasons for the same, who makes Daddy fair?

Discussion Theme

Hurray…. Good for people like me, whose potential was never identified by our magazine coordinators and have never been asked to contribute:-) just kidding…OK, I am going to give the first theme of the week for discussion and posting in this space. We’ll start with Internet Governance. Keep visiting for my next posting and better keep contributing.

i4donline Blog

The i4d www.i4donline.net (Information For Development) is intended to provide a much-needed platform for exchange of information, ideas, opinions and experiences, both inside and outside the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) sector. While several electronic publications do currently exist, i4d is perhaps the first that addresses the need by utilizing the strength and potential of the print and the online media.

i4d encompasses the role and relevance of ICT in various development sectors such as Rural Development, Gender, Governance, Micro-finance, Education, Health, Wireless Communication, ICT For Poor, Local Content, Culture and Heritage, and more.

The i4donline blog will capture day to day experiences of its team and people in the ICT4D arena as an attempt to share out what does (and does not) keep them inspired !