mapping internet governance by kenneth neil cukier the economist

Mapping Internet Governance

By Kenneth Neil Cukier The Economist

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It was bad.Source: John December, 1994, CyberMap Landmarks(from Atlas of Cyberspace)

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More helpful. Source: Donna Cox & Robert Patterson, NCSA 1992(Also from Atlas of Cyberspace)

Question:How do you “map” the landscape of policy issues -- Governance! -- where the “infrastructure” is even less tangible and more abstract?

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This and the following two slides from Diplo Foundation, 2004.

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This sucks!

Mapping Internet Governance

• What is Internet governance?

• How is it done today?

• What are some of the problems?

• What are some of the proposed solutions?

• What might work best?

• How can we conceptualize the “space”?

Jon Postel, 1943-1998

What is Internet governance?

• Content versus carriage (what is transported (versus how it works) MP3 : DNS

• Control from top-down or bottom-up (centralized or decentralized networks and thus policy) telecoms : internet

____________________________________

• ICANN

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How is it done today? Cyberspace v. Sovereignty

• UK RIP, US PATRIOT, The Great Firewall of China, etc.

• WTO, OECD, UNCITRAL, etc.

• ICANN (DOC, previously DOD/NSF & academia and industry)

What are some of the problems?

• Developing countries object (want forum)• Industrializing nations object (want more

influence)• Western countries reluctant (wary if

unilateral power, want multilateralism)____________________________________• US relinquishes direct power -- provided

private sector to ensure internet innovation

Source: i-dns.net

What are some of the proposed solutions?

• Give it to the UN

• Keep things as they are with US in control

• Find a “third-way”: (is it really an either/or situation?)

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• World Summit on the Info. Soc. (Nov 2005)

What might work best?

• Multi-stakeholder approach where power is shared but no one entity is in control.

(eg: government, industry, civil society, etc. )

• One model: “global financial architecture”

How can we conceptualize the Internet Governance “space”?

The Seven Layers of Communications Architecture

Thus: A “layered” model to Internet Governance…?

7 -- Application 6 -- Presentation5 -- Session4 -- Transport3 -- Network2 -- Data Link1 -- Physical

The Network Layers Model

Economic

Application

Presentation

Session

Transport

Network

Link

Physical

Political

You are here!

Popular t-shirt worn by Internet engineers at IETF meetings in the 1990s

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This and the following two slides from: D. MacLean 2004

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Yet it can still be cloudy!Source: Milton Mueller, 2004

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Source: Tom Vest of Packet Clearing House, 2004.

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The Geography of Internet Address Space Source: Martin Dodge and Narushige Shiode, 1998(From Atlas of Cyberspace)

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IP address space allocation distribution by countryFrom: Jacques H.J. Bourgeois, Jacques Crémer, and Pierre Marsal, 2003.

Before we need our King Solomons and Tallyrands…

We need our Edward Tuftes and Martin Dodges!

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The persistence of governance and law in the face of science and tech-nology…

US Customs formApollo 11 (1969)From: the moon

KennethCukier@Economist.com

Thank you