“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” That’s how Arthur C. Clarke put it in 1961 and it can be an apt description of the magic of the Internet from the point of view of those less technically skilled. If you ever wondered how this magic thing called the Internet works and you want to take a peek behind the curtain, if you wondered what’s it made of, who runs it, who takes the decisions, then you probably have come pretty close to asking what is Internet Governance.
Ok, I'm curious. So, what is it?
Internet Governance is well...a lot of things. It includes technical, economic, legal and sociocultural issues, but it is also about infrastructure and development.
On top of that, there are a couple of facts you need to know:
- the term governance is not the same as government
- the terms governance refers to both governance of the Internet and governance on the Internet
For more introductory reading on Internet Governance please see this free to download online book.
And who governs it?
There are a lot of different actors involved in governing the Internet:
1. private sector: Internet Service Providers and various other types of telecommunication companies, domain name registrars, software companies etc. These actors always had an active involvement in creating and running the Internet and they play a major role when it comes to the technical aspects of the Internet.
2. organizations: IETF, ISOC, ICANN, ITU, UNESCO, UNDP etc. Organizations such as these ones usually agree on technical standards and procedures that facilitate the interconnectivity of the technical infrastructure provided by the above mentioned actors.
3. governments: they are interested in controlling the Internet for political, economic or religious reasons. Historically speaking, the Internet was created and grew with little government involvement. Actually, it is a common belief that the Internet thrived exactly because governments weren’t involved.
4. civil society: NGOs, professors, researchers, Internet users etc. They are the final beneficiaries of all Internet has to give and they too are an important piece of the puzzle.
For an overview of the actors involved and their roles please see the interview with Mark Raymond, a Research Fellow in Global Security at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). CIGI is an independent, non-partisan think tank focused on international governance.
But how does the Internet work actually work?
This is one of the most interesting and important questions for understanding Internet Governance. The answer is a bit more complex, but there will be an article in this series focusing exactly on this topic. Stay tuned!
I'll leave the introductory part at these basic information, but we'll delve deeper into the Internet Governance ecosystem in the following blog posts.
