Internet Governance
‘I’nternet or ‘i’nternet and diplomatic signalling Back in 2003, The Economist magazine started writing Internet with a lowercase ‘i’. This change in editorial policy was inspired by the fact that the Internet had become an everyday item, no longer unique and special enough to warrant an initial capital. The word ‘Internet’ followed the linguistic destiny of (t)elegraph, (t)elephone, (r)adio, and (t)elevison, and other such inventions. The question of writing Internet/internet with an upper or lowercase ‘i’ re-emerged at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Conference in Antalya (November, 2006) where a political dimension was introduced when the term ‘Internet’ appeared in the ITU resolution on Internet governance with a lowercase ‘i’ instead of the usual, uppercase ‘I’. David Gross, the US ambassador in charge of Internet governance, expressed concern that the ITU lowercase spelling might signal an intention to treat the Internet like other telecommunication systems internationally governed by the ITU. Some interpreted this as a diplomatic signal of the ITU’s intention to play a more prominent role in Internet governance.3
Internet The term ‘Internet’ does not cover all of the existing aspects of global digital developments. Two other terms – information society and information and communication technology (ICT) – are usually put forward as more comprehensive. They include areas that are outside the Internet domain, such as mobile telephony. The argument for the use of the term ‘Internet’, however, is enhanced by the rapid transition of global communication towards the use of Internet protocol (IP) as the main communications technical standard. The already ubiquitous Internet continues to expand at a rapid rate, not only in terms of the number of users but also in terms of the services that it offers, notably voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP), which may displace conventional telephony. Governance In the Internet governance debate, especially in the early phase of WSIS 2003, controversy arose over the term ‘governance’ and its various interpretations. According to one interpretation, governance is synonymous with government. Many national delegations had this initial understanding, leading to the interpretation that Internet governance should be the business of governments and consequently addressed at inter-governmental level with the limited participation of other, mainly non-state actors.4 This interpretation clashed with a broader meaning of the term ‘governance’, which includes the governance of affairs of any institution, including non-governmental ones. 6