The Big Idea
The work I'm doing on OneWebDay and the work I'm going to do for ICANN are related. Both of these projects are aimed at preserving innovation and the free flow of information that is the net.
Two important questions for internet governance debates are “who” and “when.” The ICANN experiment suggests that the “who” is the community as a whole. The “when” question is about when global rules should be made (rarely) and when local autonomy should be preserved (most of the time). ICANN's processes (done right) focus work on the few global rules that are needed for the narrow domain of naming.
That's the reverse assumption from what I've understood to be coming out of the UN/WSIS discussion. There, most people seem to be assuming that someone should be in charge of the internet, and that someone inevitably will be. Why assume that? Why not keep things open, and allow the edges to make rules for themselves? Connectivity for developing nations should certainly be a focus of global discussion. But international institutions aimed at “governing the internet” will inevitably have negative effects on the innovation and information flows that make the internet work so well.
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Hi Susan,
I find that most people forget that the UN is an organization of governments.
UN pronouncements, ideas etc. are therefore going to have a government perspective. It's built into the structure.
Not only that, but the UN therefore sees ICANN as an extension of the US government, especially since it does report in some way to the Department of Commerce.
I see the growing concern about Internet governance as a struggle between individuals, governments, and business, each with their own differing points of view.