IP Democracy: Must-Read: What, Exactly, Is Internet Governance?

The ongoing push by the U.N. to take over Internet “governance” from the U.S., and the independent body managed by the U.S., ICANN, is grabbing headlines and heating up the political rhetoric. But what, precisely, is this fight all about?

Thankfully Andy Orem has come along to explain in detail what Internet governance is, how ICANN fits in, and what problems the U.N. and affiliated countries and organizations seek to solve. According to Orem, what it boils down to, aside from general anti-American sentiment, is poor management by ICANN on a number of technical issues having to do with domain names. Specifically, ICANN has some important duties with regard to technical robustness, technical security and managing the creation of domain names in various languages, and in all three regards, particularly the first two, ICANN hasn’t performed well.

Orem doesn’t, however, agree with the idea of U.N. control over Internet governance. He suggests handing over control to tighter, better run third-party organizations.

But they have a bee in their bonnet concerning ICANN. Certainly, it is controlled by the United States government—which reneges on its duties by letting ICANN blunder about so much—but the solution is not to bring it under U.N. control. The solution is to hand all its powers over to leaner, more technically focused groups that operate with less fuss and more consensus.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on October 21, 2005 11:40 AM to IP Democracy