Countdown to UN Debate over Internet Future - by Vance McCarthy
While the World Cup has captured the world’s attention this spring, this fall may be even more frenzied than soccer, as international efforts begin in earnest to apply rules of the road to the Internet. The next meeting of the United Nations' WGIG (Working Group on Internet Governance) appears to be crafting a big wish list for how and who controls worldwide governance, spam, security for the Internet.
Last week, a preliminary meeting was held in Geneva, Switzerland to begin to hammer out a WGIG agenda for the upcoming fall meeting.
While in the abstract, the goals may seem laudable, the terms of the worldwide discussion now pit the U.S against many European and third-world representatives. At the core, some analysts watching the process told IDN, the WGIG's attempts to define and orchestrate Internet governance are putting the U.S. view of a “free and open” Internet against the concept of a “democratization” of Internet resources and online practices, advocated by Europe and many third-world U.N. delegate.
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