Washington Internet Daily puts it well:
Especially in the Internet governance debate [at WSIS], conflicting parties presented very different interpretations of what the cut deal including an Internet Governance Forum [meant]. . . .
The still-deep rift over the governance issue was exemplified by the contrast between visions on the future of the Internet. John Marburger, dir., White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, said the result was “to do no harm to a system that works so well.” ITU Secy. Gen. Yoshio Utsumi, however, at the concluding press conference, spoke about a regionalization of the Internet, saying “the Internet in 5 years will be a very different network.”
It sounds, from a great distance, as if the ITU is continuing to make a play to have some kind of “oversight” over ICANN. And it's likely that the Governmental Advisory Committee wants to have more say as well.
The ITU's continued work on next generation networks (NGNs) seems to fit here. They're drawing up specifications and pleading with industry to work with them — they already have Cisco as a sponsor — in an effort to show that they can work quickly. It's hard to tell (as usual) exactly what is going on. Certainly there's a big push on ITU's part for IPTV standards.
ITU may want to position itself as the source of standards for the internet as a whole. Because what ICANN does (or should do) is approve global consensus-based standards for naming and addressing, the tensions will continue for the forseeable future.
Here's a quote from a recent ITU NGN telco meeting, also from tomorrow's Washington Internet Daily:
Speakers were asked how to make NGN easy for consumers to use. One thing NGN might accomplish is creation of a self-sustaining network service that gives users a safer, simpler and more secure experience, [a UK trade group chair] said. With NGN and broadband access, he said, stable devices can be developed that “half-wits” can use.
That's one vision of the online future: the online world will be designed in advance for half-wits.