Fergie's Tech Blog

WSIS: Who Owns the Internet 2006?

Via Red Herring.

Early in 2006, the international community will revisit a long-simmering issue that was slated for discussion, and perhaps even a solution, in 2005, but was neither discussed nor solved.

So important was the issue of political governance of the Internet that it became the focal point of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a forum with the laudable goal of seeking ways to bring the benefits of the Internet to developing countries.

The world press headed for Tunis, Tunisia, ready for a showdown between the United States, which much of the rest of the world believes to have far too much control of the Internet, and the rest of the world.

The showdown did not materialize. The political and business communities gathered in Tunis were taken aback by the strength of the U.S. resolve to retain the status quo. A temporary ceasefire was called in the heated war for political control of the Internet, and an Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was formed.

posted by Fergie @ 12/28/2005 09:02:00 AM