[bc-gnso] NetChoice blog post: The Real Question of Internet Governance

[Steve DelBianco <sdelbianco@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just posted this blog in advance of the IGF meeting next week in Baku.  
Link<http://www.netchoice.org/the-real-question-of-internet-governance/> and 
below.

The Real Question of Internet Governance




The latter half of 2012 is one of the heaviest periods of Internet governance 
activity ever, with three critical events that could change the course of the 
next decade.  So it’s important to take a step back from the catchall phrase 
“Internet governance,” and ask what it even means… and why it really matters.



It started earlier this month in Toronto with the 45th meeting of the Internet 
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN<http://www.icann.org/>), and 
continues through the Internet Governance Forum 
(IGF<http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/>) in Baku, Azerbaijan in November.   Then, 
December brings us the World Conference on International Telecommunications 
(WCIT<http://www.itu.int/en/wcit-12/Pages/overview.aspx>) in Dubai.   Taken 
together, these events present a series of critical decision points for the 
Internet’s future.



At a recent preparatory meeting for the IGF in Washington, one speaker said 
these events attempt to answer the question, “Who should govern the Internet?”



But I countered by saying the real question is, “When people use the Internet, 
how are their activities best governed?”



I asked this because it’s critical for people to remember that very few, if 
any, of the online activities swept in under the rubric of Internet governance 
are unique to the Internet.



The activities we do online are often good: expressing ourselves, rallying 
support for causes, communicating with our friend and families.  And there are 
bad activities, too: stealing, fraud, bullying and harassing, fomenting hatred 
and discrimination.



All these activities have been around long before the Internet, and all 
continue to be caused by people in the physical world.   As a result,  
questions of how to “govern” or “regulate” those activities has been 
exhaustively discussed, debated and coded into law.



So what makes the Internet different? Clearly there are differences or I 
wouldn’t need to spend much of this year in airports and conference hotels.   
But what are the distinctions that make Internet governance different from 
regular governance of the very same activities?



I would argue that it comes down to three big differences about the Internet: 
time, distance, and identity.



How the Internet compresses time is obvious to anyone who lived before its 
adoption. The term “Internet time” was coined to reflect the breakneck pace at 
which change, both good and bad, appears and propagates on the Internet. On the 
good side, the Internet dramatically speeds the commerce, communication and 
organization, in a manner that extends far beyond simple convenience. The dark 
side of “Internet time” is that criminals, pirates and fraudsters can do much 
more damage, in a much shorter amount of time, than was possible in the 
physical world.



The Internet has also warped our concept of distance. We travel around the 
world and back in a matter of keystrokes, along with our wallets and personal 
information. Distance also means that a criminal in Russia may as well be 
standing directly behind me on a crowded bus, given the ease with which he can 
take my property and identity from afar.



The famous New Yorker cartoon sums up the identity issue perfectly: “on the 
Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog,” — or  a trusted vendor, a crook or anyone 
else for that matter. The message to users whether online or offline is still,  
caveat emptor.



Still, the discussion of these activities in the online world is what animates 
the global conversation about Internet Governance at IGF, at the United 
Nation’s WCIT, and to a lesser extent, at ICANN. The obfuscation of time, 
distance, and identity have raised the stakes, and brought a lot of new 
stakeholders into the debate. How we address these core Internet 
differentiators will determine how the Internet evolves, and how those 
activities are restricted or encouraged.



So while we all eagerly await the answer of “who” shall regulate the Internet, 
we may be missing critical work on questions of “how” the activities of real 
people are regulated, whether offline or online.  And from what I can see, that 
is the more important question before us.

--
Steve DelBianco
Executive Director
NetChoice
http://www.NetChoice.org and http://blog.netchoice.org
+1.202.420.7482