1. Understanding & Use of the Internet (UUI)
Governing the Internet
Spring 2012
G. F Khan, PhD

2. So far Internet & Theories (STT, SCOT etc) Community & Identity
Information Society
Online Politics and Democracy
Privacy and Surveillance
Legal & Ethical Considerations
The Internet and the Digital Divide

3. This Lecture… Governing the Internet Why and Why not Policy issues
Technical issues
Network neutrality debate

4. Regulating the Internet: Historical Perspective
In the early days of the Internet the prevailing view was that government should stay out of Internet governance.
Self-regulations and Market forces will enforce order and standards of behavior

5. Regulating the Internet: Historical Perspective
Regulating the Internet is, “Like trying to nail jell-O to the wall” (Clinton, 2000)
Regulation and government usually linked to space/ territory
A socio-technical phenomena difficult to control and regulate

6. Regulating the Internet: Historical Perspective
“Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of the Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather. … Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.” (Perry Barlow 1996).

7. However,
These view has failed to address crucial issues faced by the Internet users e.g. privacy, security, and access to diverse contents.
The recent events (e.g. wiki leaks) and rapid growth of the Internet brought world wide crisis of governance

8. Need of Governance: Examples
Wiki leaks
Whether DNS servers had the right to stop hosting Wiki Leaks?
Egypt goes offline
The recent turmoil in Egypt is generating uproar about whether a government has the right to pull the plug in a matter of minutes.

9. As the number of users has grown worldwide, so have calls for protection of these important public and consumer interests

10. Why it is important to govern the Internet? Or
Why should we be concerned?

11. Why to Govern the Internet?
If Internet becoming more important to society, democracy ,and economy then any change can have important implications that should be tackled in political debate
Government, NGOs, and industry need to prepare for potential challenges and opportunities e.g.
Who has access: digital inclusion debate
Do governments have right to control, support internet in their jurisdiction? E.g. pulling the plug of the internet
Who has power to control wires and content/communication?

12. How to govern?
The subject of “Internet Governance” covers a range of questions, few of which actually have to do with governing the Internet
Mostly has to do with
The roles of public and private sector
Decision and management processes
Power and control
Development

13. The four (4) Layers of the Internet Economy
Internet Commerce
Layer 4
Intermediairy/Market Maker
Layer 3
Application Infrastructure
Layer 2
Internet Infrastructure
Layer 1
Source Cisco

14. The (5) layers of the Internet Governance
Social - Culture
Layer 5
Economy
Layer 4
Development - Policy
Layer 3
Juridiction - Law
Layer 2
Infrastructure - Standards
Layer 1
Source Diplo

15. Map of complex IG issues

16. Internet Gouvernance components
We can define three components:
the technical engineering function that allows different components of the Internet to interact;
ii) the technical coordination of the key protocols and addresses and names that underpin the technical functioning of the Internet;
iii) the handling of public policy matters that should be discussed openly among governments, business and civil society.

17. (1)The technical coordination of the Internet
- the development of Internet protocol (IP) standards;
- the administration, coordination and allocation of IP addresses;
- the delegation of domain names;
- the coordination of the root server system;
the coordination of procedures related to the technical coordination of the Internet.
The organizations involved in the technical coordination of the Internet depend on constant input from and interaction with relevant experts to keep the Internet and its related technologies developing in a robust and global manner, providing a platform for business-led innovation and communication for users from around the world.

18. Several private-sector-led organizations ...
They play a critical role in the technical coordination of the Internet, including technical security and stability, among them:
- the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
- the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)
- the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
- the Regional Addressing Registries (e.g. RIPE, ARIN, APNIC,LANIC and AFRINIC)
- the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

19. Technical engineering
IAB :
strategic technical direction of the Internet, including architectural oversight of Internet protocol and procedures, and standards development oversight and appeal of the IETF (described below)
IESG
manages IETF’s activities and Internet standards process. It administers the IETF process by initiating working groups and either ratifying or remanding its output for further work.
IETF
Principal body that develops Internet standards specifications with its work including ENUM, Instant messaging and internationalized domain names through a widely participatory process, open to all interested parties.
W3C
develops interoperable specifications, guidelines, software and tools to promote the evolution and interoperability of the World Wide Web

20. (2) Coordination of the Internet names and numbers system
ICANN is responsible for coordinating and managing the domain name system, a key technical function that underpins the Internet, ensuring universal resolvability of Internet communications so that all users can find a valid Internet address.
ICANN’s responsibilities are limited to:
- the administration, coordination and allocation of IP addresses and domain names;
- the administration and coordination of the root server system4 - the coordination of relationships with other entities, such as the regional addressing registries and the ccTLD registries
- promoting competition within generic top-level domain name space (.com, .org, .net, .biz, etc);
- matters related to these functions such as a system for domain name dispute resolution.

21. (3) Public Policy Matters
Public policy matters are, in general, the responsibility of governments.
However, policy discussions must include the active participation of business and other stakeholders.
A small sample of public policy matters related to the information society include:
· intellectual property protection
· taxation
· privacy
· trade
· security
· consumer protection / empowerment
· education
· spam

22. The role of different stakeholders
a) Areas for government action
Promotion of competition - Removal of barriers to competition · Trade liberalization · Spectrum Allocation.
b) Areas where market-forces should prevail
Competitive marketplace for the trade of Goods and services offered
Innovation and technological developments
c) Areas where self-regulation, choice, individual empowerment and industry led solutions should prevail
User confidence - information and network security, consumer empowerment, etc,
Domain Names and other aspects of the technical coordination of the Internet
d) Areas where joint government and private sector action is required
Education and skills development.
Digital divide/opportunities through private/public partnership,
Culture of security, for information exchange, communication and commerce.
Prevention and enforcement against cyber-crime.

23. Some of the various interest groups competing for influence over the Domain Name and Addressing systems
WIPO
NSI/
Verisign
ccTLD
registries
ITU
(ITU-T)
OECD
Consumers
US Military
Foreign
Business
Registries
ISPs
Universities
Registrars
UNDP
IETF
IAB
FTC
Intellectual
Property
interests
Root
Server
Operators
Security
Issues
NATO US
Business
Developing
World
Governments
Civil
Society
Groups
Regional
Internet
Registries
FCC
ETSI
W3C
OECD
governments

24. Internet Governance: Public sector vs. private sector concerns
Tends to ask why are we not responsible for its operation?
Wants more control
Private Sector:
Tends to ask what is so broken about private sector management that we have to change it?
Give rise to the Internet technology
DARPA, ITU, etc
Currently responsible to run Internet.

25. Issues in power and control
Laws people would like to pass
Services governments would like to mandate
Politics of these services

26. Laws people would like to pass
Pornography
Viruses
Spam
Taxation

27. Services governments would like to mandate
Lawful intercept e.g. Egypt case
Internet intelligence gathering
Control of the content e.g. Korea cyber law (you use your real name to use Internet portals)

28. Politics of these services:
Who pays for the service?
Often an unfunded mandate
Privacy issues

29. PART 2
Net Neutrality

30. Net Neutrality-debate
What does it say?
And why is it important issue?

31. Net Neutrality-debate
Network neutrality is the principle that say all Internet traffic should be treated equally.
Deals with the Internet traffic control
ISPs and other network operators should not discriminate the internet traffic
Based on the type of application,
Source of content,
Nature of content, and
other criteria.

32. Proponents of Net Neutrality
Many major Internet application companies are advocates of neutrality .e.g.,
Google
Yahoo
EBay
Amazon etc
Demand no regulation related to NN

33. Google’s view: Example
Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet.
Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet… …the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content.
Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online.
More information:

34. Opponents of Net Neutrality
Opponents of net neutrality include hardware companies and members of the cable and telecommunications industries, including major telecommunications providers
E.g. CISCO

35. Opponents’ View Violation of property rights:
They say Net neutrality is a violation of the property rights of bandwidth providers because they should be able to decide how to allocate the bandwidth they produce.
Crucial for Innovation and investment
No incentive to make large investments to develop advanced fibre-optic networks if they are prohibited from charging higher preferred access fees to companies that wish to take advantage of the expanded capabilities of such networks.
Preferential treatment
if you pay more your data packets faster than other Internet traffic

36. Opponents’ View
Thorne and other ISPs have accused Google and Skype of freeloading or free riding for using a network of lines and cables the phone company spent billions of dollars to build

37. Origen of Net Neutrality
Increasing use of high bandwidth applications (online games, music and video downloading, including file-sharing via peer-to-peer networks), which demands further investments in network architecture development;
Increasing use of wireless home networks, which allow neighbours to share an Internet connection, thereby reducing revenues for the service providers
Development of new applications for voice and video transfer over the Internet (including VoIP technology) that threaten the revenues of traditional telecom providers who also offer Internet access;

38. Appendix: Porter's Five Market forces