Internet governance
Encyclopedia
Internet governance is the development and application of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programs that shape the evolution and use of the Internet
. This article describes how the Internet was and is currently governed, some of the controversies that occurred along the way, and the ongoing debates about how the Internet should or should not be governed in the future.
comprising many voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks. It operates without a central governing body. However, to maintain interoperability, all technical and policy aspects of the underlying core infrastructure and the principal namespace
s are administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), headquartered in Marina del Rey, California
. ICANN oversees the assignment of globally unique identifiers on the Internet, including domain name
s, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, application port numbers in the transport protocols, and many other parameters. This creates a globally unified namespace that is essential for the global reach of the Internet. ICANN is governed by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and other non-commercial communities. However, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration
, an agency of the United States Department of Commerce
, continues to have final approval over changes to the DNS root zone
. This authority over the root zone file makes ICANN one of a few bodies with global, centralized influence over the otherwise distributed Internet.
On 16 November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society
, held in Tunis
, established the Internet Governance Forum
(IGF) to open an ongoing, non-binding conversation among multiple stakeholders about the future of Internet governance. Since WSIS, the term "Internet governance" has been broadened beyond narrow technical concerns to include a wider range of Internet-related policy issues.
A Working group established after a United Nations-initiated World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) proposed the following definition of Internet governance as part of its June 2005 report:
Law professor Yochai Benkler developed a conceptualization of Internet governance by the idea of three "layers" of governance: the "physical infrastructure" layer through which information travels; the "code" or "logical" layer that controls the infrastructure; and the "content" layer, which contains the information that signals through the network.
, one of the components which evolved eventually into the Internet, connected four Universities: University of California Los Angeles, University of California Santa Barbara, Stanford Research Institute and Utah University. The IMPs, interface minicomputers, were built during 1969 by Bolt, Beranek and Newman in accord with a proposal by the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
, which funded the system as an experiment. By 1973 it connected many more systems and included satellite links to Hawaii and Scandinavia, and a further link from Norway to London. ARPANET continued to grow in size, becoming more a utility than a research project. For this reason, in 1975 it was transferred to the US Defense Communications Agency
.
During the development of ARPANET, a numbered series of Request for Comments
(RFCs) memos documented technical decisions and methods of working as they evolved. The standards of today's Internet are still documented by RFCs, produced through the very process which evolved on ARPANET.
Outside of the USA the dominant technology was X.25
. The International Packet Switched Service
, created during 1978, used X.25 and extended to Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, and the USA. It allowed individual users and companies to connect to a variety of mainframe systems, including Compuserve
. Between 1979 and 1984, a system known as Unix to Unix Copy Program
grew to connect 940 hosts, using methods like X.25 links, ARPANET connections, and leased lines. Usenet
News, a distributed discussion system, was a major use of UUCP.
The Internet protocol suite
, developed between 1973 and 1977 with funding from ARPA, was intended to hide the differences between different underlying networks and allow many different applications to be used over the same network.
RFC 801 describes how the US Department of Defense organized the replacement of ARPANET's Network Control Program
by the new Internet Protocol during January 1983. During the same year, the military systems were removed to a distinct MILNET
, and the Domain Name System
was invented to manage the names and addresses of computers on the "ARPA Internet". The familiar top-level domain
s .gov
, .mil
, .edu
, .org
, .net
, .com
, and .int
, and the two-letter country code top-level domain
s were deployed during 1984.
Between 1984 and 1986 the US National Science Foundation
created the NSFNET
backbone, using TCP/IP, to connect their supercomputing facilities. The combined network became generally known as the Internet.
By the end of 1989 Australia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom had connected to the Internet, which now contained over 160,000 hosts.
During 1990, ARPANET formally terminated, and during 1991 the NSF ended its restrictions on commercial use of its part of the Internet. Commercial network providers began to interconnect, extending the Internet.
Today almost all Internet infrastructure is provided and owned by the private sector. Traffic is exchanged between these networks, at major interconnect points, in accordance with established Internet standards and commercial agreements.
), and during 1986 it became the Internet Activities Board.
The Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF) was formed during 1986 by the US Government to develop and promote Internet standards. It consisted initially of researchers, but by the end of the year participation was available to anyone, and its business was performed largely by email.
From the early days of the network until his death during 1998, Jon Postel
oversaw address allocation and other Internet protocol numbering and assignments in his capacity as Director of the Computer Networks Division at the Information Sciences Institute
of the University of Southern California
, under a contract from the Dept. of Defense. This function eventually became known as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA), and as it expanded to include management of the global Domain Name System (DNS
) root servers, a small organization grew. Postel also served as RFC
Editor.
Allocation of IP addresses was delegated to four Regional Internet Registries
(RIRs):
In 2004 a new RIR, AfriNIC
, was created to manage allocations for Africa.
After Jon Postel's death during 1998, the IANA became part of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN
), a newly created Californian non-profit corporation, initiated during September 1998 by the US Government and awarded a contract by the US Department of Commerce. Initially two board members were elected by the Internet community at large, though this was changed by the rest of the board during 2002 in a little- attended public meeting in Accra
, Ghana
.
During 1992 the Internet Society
(ISOC) was founded, with a mission to "assure the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world". Its members include individuals (anyone may join) as well as corporations, organizations, governments, and universities. The IAB was renamed the Internet Architecture Board
, and became part of ISOC. The Internet Engineering Task Force also became part of the ISOC. The IETF is overseen currently by the Internet Engineering Steering Group
(IESG), and longer term research is carried on by the Internet Research Task Force
and overseen by the Internet Research Steering Group
.
During 2002, a restructuring of the Internet Society gave more control to its corporate members.
At the first World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS
) in Geneva
2003 the topic of Internet governance was discussed. ICANN's status as a private corporation under contract to the U.S. government created controversy among other governments, especially Brazil, China, South Africa and some Arab states. Since no general agreement existed even on the definition of what comprised Internet governance, United Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan
initiated a Working Group on Internet Governance
(WGIG
) to clarify the issues and report before the second part of the World Summit on the Information Society
in Tunis
2005. After much controversial debate, during which the US delegation refused to consider surrendering the US control of the Root Zone file, participants agreed on a compromise to allow for wider international debate on the policy principles. They agreed to establish an Internet Governance Forum
,
to be convened by United Nations
Secretary General before the end of the second quarter of the year 2006.
The Greek
government volunteered to host the first such meeting.
When the IANA functions were given to a new US non-profit Corporation called ICANN
, controversy increased. ICANN's 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 that ICANN would become illegitimate and its qualifications questionable, due to the fact that it was now losing the aspect of being a neutral governing body. ICANN stated that they were merely streamlining decision-making processes, and developing a structure suitable for the modern Internet.
Other topics 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 the increase.
There were also suggestions that individual governments should have more control, or that the International Telecommunication Union
or the United Nations
should have a function in Internet governance.
One such proposal, resulting from a September 2011 summit between India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA), would seek to move internet governance into their sphere of dominance. The move is a reaction to a perception that the principles of the 2005 Tunis Agenda for the Information Society have not been met. The statement calls for the subordination of independent technical organizations such as ICANN and the ITU to a political organization operating under the auspices of the United Nations.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. This article describes how the Internet was and is currently governed, some of the controversies that occurred along the way, and the ongoing debates about how the Internet should or should not be governed in the future.
Background
The Internet is a globally distributed networkGlobal network
A global network is any communication network which spans the entire Earth. The term, as used in this article refers in a more restricted way to bidirectional communication networks, and to technology-based networks...
comprising many voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks. It operates without a central governing body. However, to maintain interoperability, all technical and policy aspects of the underlying core infrastructure and the principal namespace
Namespace
In general, a namespace is a container that provides context for the identifiers it holds, and allows the disambiguation of homonym identifiers residing in different namespaces....
s are administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), headquartered in Marina del Rey, California
Marina del Rey, California
-Demographics:-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Marina del Rey had a population of 8,866. The population density was 6,094.6 people per square mile...
. ICANN oversees the assignment of globally unique identifiers on the Internet, including domain name
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....
s, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, application port numbers in the transport protocols, and many other parameters. This creates a globally unified namespace that is essential for the global reach of the Internet. ICANN is governed by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and other non-commercial communities. However, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration
National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce that serves as the President's principal adviser on telecommunications policies pertaining to the United States' economic and technological advancement and to regulation of the...
, an agency of the United States Department of Commerce
United States Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
, continues to have final approval over changes to the DNS root zone
DNS root zone
A DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in a Domain Name System hierarchy. Most commonly it refers to the root zone of the largest global DNS, deployed for the Internet. Ultimate authority over the DNS root zone rests with the US Department of Commerce NTIA...
. This authority over the root zone file makes ICANN one of a few bodies with global, centralized influence over the otherwise distributed Internet.
On 16 November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society
World Summit on the Information Society
The World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis...
, held in Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
, established the Internet Governance Forum
Internet Governance Forum
The Internet Governance Forum is a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. It brings together all stakeholders in the internet governance debate, whether they represent governments, the private sector or civil society, including the technical and academic...
(IGF) to open an ongoing, non-binding conversation among multiple stakeholders about the future of Internet governance. Since WSIS, the term "Internet governance" has been broadened beyond narrow technical concerns to include a wider range of Internet-related policy issues.
Definition
The definition of Internet governance has been contested by differing groups across political and ideological lines. One of the main debates concerns the authority and participation of certain actors, such as national governments, corporate entities and civil society, to play a role in the Internet's governance.A Working group established after a United Nations-initiated World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) proposed the following definition of Internet governance as part of its June 2005 report:
- 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.
Law professor Yochai Benkler developed a conceptualization of Internet governance by the idea of three "layers" of governance: the "physical infrastructure" layer through which information travels; the "code" or "logical" layer that controls the infrastructure; and the "content" layer, which contains the information that signals through the network.
History
To understand how the Internet is managed today, it is necessary to know some of the main events of Internet governance.Formation and growth of the network
The original ARPANETARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
, one of the components which evolved eventually into the Internet, connected four Universities: University of California Los Angeles, University of California Santa Barbara, Stanford Research Institute and Utah University. The IMPs, interface minicomputers, were built during 1969 by Bolt, Beranek and Newman in accord with a proposal by the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military...
, which funded the system as an experiment. By 1973 it connected many more systems and included satellite links to Hawaii and Scandinavia, and a further link from Norway to London. ARPANET continued to grow in size, becoming more a utility than a research project. For this reason, in 1975 it was transferred to the US Defense Communications Agency
Defense Information Systems Agency
The Defense Information Systems Agency is a United States Department of Defense agency that provides information technology and communications support to the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, the military Services, and the Combatant Commands.As part of the Base Realignment and...
.
During the development of ARPANET, a numbered series of Request for Comments
Request for Comments
In computer network engineering, a Request for Comments is a memorandum published by the Internet Engineering Task Force describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems.Through the Internet Society, engineers and...
(RFCs) memos documented technical decisions and methods of working as they evolved. The standards of today's Internet are still documented by RFCs, produced through the very process which evolved on ARPANET.
Outside of the USA the dominant technology was X.25
X.25
X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links...
. The International Packet Switched Service
International Packet Switched Service
The International Packet Switched Service was created in 1978 by a collaboration between the United Kingdom's General Post Office, Western Union International and the United States' Tymnet....
, created during 1978, used X.25 and extended to Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, and the USA. It allowed individual users and companies to connect to a variety of mainframe systems, including Compuserve
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
. Between 1979 and 1984, a system known as Unix to Unix Copy Program
UUCP
UUCP is an abbreviation for Unix-to-Unix Copy. The term generally refers to a suite of computer programs and protocols allowing remote execution of commands and transfer of files, email and netnews between computers. Specifically, a command named uucp is one of the programs in the suite; it...
grew to connect 940 hosts, using methods like X.25 links, ARPANET connections, and leased lines. Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
News, a distributed discussion system, was a major use of UUCP.
The Internet protocol suite
Internet protocol suite
The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks. It is commonly known as TCP/IP from its most important protocols: Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol , which were the first networking protocols defined in this...
, developed between 1973 and 1977 with funding from ARPA, was intended to hide the differences between different underlying networks and allow many different applications to be used over the same network.
RFC 801 describes how the US Department of Defense organized the replacement of ARPANET's Network Control Program
Network Control Program
The Network Control Program provided the middle layers of the protocol stack running on host computers of the ARPANET, the predecessor to the modern Internet...
by the new Internet Protocol during January 1983. During the same year, the military systems were removed to a distinct MILNET
MILNET
In computer networking, MILNET was the name given to the part of the ARPANET internetwork designated for unclassified United States Department of Defense traffic....
, and the Domain Name System
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
was invented to manage the names and addresses of computers on the "ARPA Internet". The familiar top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
s .gov
.gov
The domain name gov is a sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from government, indicating its restricted use by government entities in the United States. The gov domain is administered by the General Services Administration , an independent...
, .mil
.mil
The domain name mil is the sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet for the United States Department of Defense and its subsidiary or affiliated organizations. The name is derived from military. It was one of the first top-level domains, created in January 1985.The...
, .edu
.edu
The domain name edu is a sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The "domain is intended for accredited post-secondary educational U.S. institutions" and this intention is strictly enforced....
, .org
.org
The domain name org is a generic top-level domain of the Domain Name System used in the Internet. The name is derived from organization....
, .net
.net
The domain name net is a generic top-level domain used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from network, indicating its originally intended purpose for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers and other infrastructure companies...
, .com
.com
The domain name com is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations...
, and .int
.int
The domain name int is a sponsored top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from the word international, characterizing its use for world-wide purposes....
, and the two-letter country code top-level domain
Country code top-level domain
A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, a sovereign state, or a dependent territory....
s were deployed during 1984.
Between 1984 and 1986 the US National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
created the NSFNET
NSFNet
The National Science Foundation Network was a program of coordinated, evolving projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation beginning in 1985 to promote advanced research and education networking in the United States...
backbone, using TCP/IP, to connect their supercomputing facilities. The combined network became generally known as the Internet.
By the end of 1989 Australia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom had connected to the Internet, which now contained over 160,000 hosts.
During 1990, ARPANET formally terminated, and during 1991 the NSF ended its restrictions on commercial use of its part of the Internet. Commercial network providers began to interconnect, extending the Internet.
Today almost all Internet infrastructure is provided and owned by the private sector. Traffic is exchanged between these networks, at major interconnect points, in accordance with established Internet standards and commercial agreements.
Governors
During 1979 the Internet Configuration Control Board was founded by DARPA to oversee the network's development. During 1984 it was renamed the Internet Advisory Board (IABInternet Architecture Board
The Internet Architecture Board is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society ....
), and during 1986 it became the Internet Activities Board.
The Internet Engineering Task Force
Internet Engineering Task Force
The Internet Engineering Task Force develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standards bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite...
(IETF) was formed during 1986 by the US Government to develop and promote Internet standards. It consisted initially of researchers, but by the end of the year participation was available to anyone, and its business was performed largely by email.
From the early days of the network until his death during 1998, Jon Postel
Jon Postel
Jonathan Bruce Postel was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards...
oversaw address allocation and other Internet protocol numbering and assignments in his capacity as Director of the Computer Networks Division at the Information Sciences Institute
Information Sciences Institute
The Information Sciences Institute is a research and development unit of the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering which focuses on computer and communications technology and information processing...
of the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, under a contract from the Dept. of Defense. This function eventually became known as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System , media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and numbers...
(IANA), and as it expanded to include management of the global Domain Name System (DNS
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
) root servers, a small organization grew. Postel also served as RFC
Request for Comments
In computer network engineering, a Request for Comments is a memorandum published by the Internet Engineering Task Force describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems.Through the Internet Society, engineers and...
Editor.
Allocation of IP addresses was delegated to four Regional Internet Registries
Regional Internet Registry
A regional Internet registry is an organization that manages the allocation and registration of Internet number resources within a particular region of the world...
(RIRs):
- American Registry for Internet NumbersAmerican Registry for Internet NumbersThe American Registry for Internet Numbers is the Regional Internet Registry for Canada, many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands, and the United States. ARIN manages the distribution of Internet number resources, including IPv4 and IPv6 address space and AS numbers. ARIN opened its doors for...
(ARIN) for North America - Réseaux IP Européens - Network Coordination CentreRIPERéseaux IP Européens is a forum open to all parties with an interest in the technical development of the Internet. The RIPE community’s objective is to ensure that the administrative and technical coordination necessary to maintain and develop the Internet continues...
(RIPE NCC) for Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia - Asia-Pacific Network Information CentreAsia-Pacific Network Information CentreThe Asia Pacific Network Information Centre is the Regional Internet Registry for the Asia Pacific region.APNIC provides number resource allocation and registration services that support the global operation of the Internet...
(APNIC) for Asia and the Pacific region - Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses RegistryLatin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses RegistryThe Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre is the Regional Internet Registry for the Latin American and Caribbean regions.LACNIC provides number resource allocation and registration...
(LACNIC) for Latin America and the Caribbean region
In 2004 a new RIR, AfriNIC
AfriNIC
AfriNIC is the regional Internet registry for Africa. Its headquarters are in Ebene City, Mauritius. Adiel Akplogan is the registry's chief executive officer...
, was created to manage allocations for Africa.
After Jon Postel's death during 1998, the IANA became part of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
), a newly created Californian non-profit corporation, initiated during September 1998 by the US Government and awarded a contract by the US Department of Commerce. Initially two board members were elected by the Internet community at large, though this was changed by the rest of the board during 2002 in a little- attended public meeting in Accra
Accra
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
.
During 1992 the Internet Society
Internet Society
The Internet Society or ISOC is an international, nonprofit organization founded during 1992 to provide direction in Internet related standards, education, and policy...
(ISOC) was founded, with a mission to "assure the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world". Its members include individuals (anyone may join) as well as corporations, organizations, governments, and universities. The IAB was renamed the Internet Architecture Board
Internet Architecture Board
The Internet Architecture Board is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society ....
, and became part of ISOC. The Internet Engineering Task Force also became part of the ISOC. The IETF is overseen currently by the Internet Engineering Steering Group
Internet Engineering Steering Group
The Internet Engineering Steering Group is a body composed of the Internet Engineering Task Force chair and area directors.It provides the final technical review of Internet standards and is responsible for day-to-day management of the IETF...
(IESG), and longer term research is carried on by the Internet Research Task Force
Internet Research Task Force
The Internet Research Task Force focuses on longer term research issues related to the Internet while the parallel organization, the Internet Engineering Task Force , focuses on the shorter term issues of engineering and standards making...
and overseen by the Internet Research Steering Group
Internet Research Steering Group
The Internet Research Task Force is managed by the IRTF chair in consultation with the Internet Research Steering Group . The IRSG membership includes the IRTF chair, the chairs of the various IRTF research groups and other individuals from the research or IETF communities.IRSG members at large...
.
During 2002, a restructuring of the Internet Society gave more control to its corporate members.
At the first World Summit on the Information Society
World Summit on the Information Society
The World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis...
(WSIS
World Summit on the Information Society
The World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis...
) in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
2003 the topic of Internet governance was discussed. ICANN's status as a private corporation under contract to the U.S. government created controversy among other governments, especially Brazil, China, South Africa and some Arab states. Since no general agreement existed even on the definition of what comprised Internet governance, United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Secretary General Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
initiated a Working Group on Internet Governance
Working Group on Internet Governance
The Working Group on Internet Governance was a United Nations multistakeholder Working group initiated after the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society first phase Summit in Geneva to agree on the future of Internet governance....
(WGIG
Working Group on Internet Governance
The Working Group on Internet Governance was a United Nations multistakeholder Working group initiated after the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society first phase Summit in Geneva to agree on the future of Internet governance....
) to clarify the issues and report before the second part of the World Summit on the Information Society
World Summit on the Information Society
The World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis...
in Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
2005. After much controversial debate, during which the US delegation refused to consider surrendering the US control of the Root Zone file, participants agreed on a compromise to allow for wider international debate on the policy principles. They agreed to establish an Internet Governance Forum
Internet Governance Forum
The Internet Governance Forum is a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. It brings together all stakeholders in the internet governance debate, whether they represent governments, the private sector or civil society, including the technical and academic...
,
to be convened by United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Secretary General before the end of the second quarter of the year 2006.
The Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
government volunteered to host the first such meeting.
Globalization and governance controversy
The position of the US Department of Commerce as the controller of the Internet gradually attracted criticism from those who felt that control should be more international. A hands-off philosophy by the US Dept. of Commerce helped limit this criticism, but this was undermined in 2005 when the Bush administration intervened to help kill the .xxx top level domain proposal.When the IANA functions were given to a new US non-profit Corporation called ICANN
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
, controversy increased. ICANN's 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 that ICANN would become illegitimate and its qualifications questionable, due to the fact that it was now losing the aspect of being a neutral governing body. ICANN stated that they were merely streamlining decision-making processes, and developing a structure suitable for the modern Internet.
Other topics 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 the increase.
There were also suggestions that individual governments should have more control, or that the International Telecommunication Union
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...
or the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
should have a function in Internet governance.
One such proposal, resulting from a September 2011 summit between India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA), would seek to move internet governance into their sphere of dominance. The move is a reaction to a perception that the principles of the 2005 Tunis Agenda for the Information Society have not been met. The statement calls for the subordination of independent technical organizations such as ICANN and the ITU to a political organization operating under the auspices of the United Nations.
Internet bodies
- Internet Engineering Task ForceInternet Engineering Task ForceThe Internet Engineering Task Force develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standards bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite...
(IETF) - Internet Assigned Numbers AuthorityInternet Assigned Numbers AuthorityThe Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System , media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and numbers...
(IANA) - ICANNICANNThe Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
- the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - Internet SocietyInternet SocietyThe Internet Society or ISOC is an international, nonprofit organization founded during 1992 to provide direction in Internet related standards, education, and policy...
(ISOC) - Number Resource Organization
- Regional Internet RegistryRegional Internet RegistryA regional Internet registry is an organization that manages the allocation and registration of Internet number resources within a particular region of the world...
(RIR) - Internet Research Task ForceInternet Research Task ForceThe Internet Research Task Force focuses on longer term research issues related to the Internet while the parallel organization, the Internet Engineering Task Force , focuses on the shorter term issues of engineering and standards making...
(IRTF) - Internet Architecture BoardInternet Architecture BoardThe Internet Architecture Board is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society ....
(IAB)
United Nations bodies
- Internet Governance ForumInternet Governance ForumThe Internet Governance Forum is a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. It brings together all stakeholders in the internet governance debate, whether they represent governments, the private sector or civil society, including the technical and academic...
- World Summit on the Information SocietyWorld Summit on the Information SocietyThe World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis...
- Working Group on Internet GovernanceWorking Group on Internet GovernanceThe Working Group on Internet Governance was a United Nations multistakeholder Working group initiated after the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society first phase Summit in Geneva to agree on the future of Internet governance....
Further reading
- An Introduction to Internet Governance (4th edition), by Jovan Kurbalija, DiploFoundation, 2010. Purposing a practical framework for analysis, discussion and resolution of significant issues in Internet governance.
- The Information Society Library by Jovan Kurbalija, Ed Gelbstein and Stefano Baldi, DiploFoundation, 2003. The series also includes a comprehensive study of infrastructural, legal, economic, developmental and socio-cultural aspects of internet governance.http://textus.diplomacy.edu/Portals/ISL/Default.asp?FilterTopic=/44690/
- Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace by Milton Mueller, MIT Press, 2002. The definitive study of DNS and ICANN's early history.
- Protocol Politics, Laura DeNardisLaura DeNardisLaura DeNardis, American author and Internet scholar, is the Executive Director of the Yale Information Society Project and a Lecturer and Research Scholar at Yale Law School...
, MIT Press, 2009. IP addressing and the migration to IPv6 - One History of DNS by Ross W. Rader. Article contains historic facts about DNS and explains the reasons behind the so called "dns war".
- The Emerging Field of Internet Governance, by Laura DeNardisLaura DeNardisLaura DeNardis, American author and Internet scholar, is the Executive Director of the Yale Information Society Project and a Lecturer and Research Scholar at Yale Law School...
. Suggests a framework for understanding problems in Internet governance. - Launching the DNS War: Dot-Com Privatization and the Rise of Global Internet Governance by Craig Simon. Ph.D. dissertation containing an extensive history of events which sparked the so-called "dns war".
- Habermas@discourse.net: Toward a Critical Theory of Cyberspace, 116 Harv. L. Rev. 749 (2003), by A. Michael Froomkin. Argues that the Internet standards process undertaken by the IETF fulfils Jürgen HabermasJürgen HabermasJürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...
's conditions for the best practical discourse.
External links
- Internet Governance Project
- Diplo Internet Governance Community
- The Politics and Issues of Internet Governance, Milton L. Mueller - April 2007, analyse from the Institute of research and debate on Governance
- ICANN - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
- Net Dialogue
- World Summit on the Information Society
- Working Group on Internet Governance
- The Future of Global Internet governance, IIT-CNR, Pisa
- CircleID: Internet Governance
- ICANN is becoming open
- Internet Rights Charter