[LINK] Internet Governance and the ITU

[Tom Worthington]

In "What went wrong at WCIT" (Online Opinion, 24 December 2012)  Paul 
Budde gave his usual insightful analysis of the debate about Internet 
governance at the World Conference on International Telecommunications 
2012 (WCIT-12): http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=14503

WCIT is convened by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a 
body now under the UN (but which is actually much older than the UN), 
which coordinates telecommunications internationally. The WCIT meetings 
are frequently controversial, as they deal with how telecommunication 
operates internationally and, to some extent, within countries. But this 
controversy is usually only noticed by telecommunications professionals, 
whereas the debate over Internet governance received attention in the 
popular press.

Paul Budde argues that a key problem is difference in the definition of 
the Internet between the USA and the rest of the world, with the USA 
including the information content of the Internet, as well as the 
telecommunication infrastructure. I am not so sure this is the problem. 
The main issue is that countries want to control their 
telecommunications infrastructure and what their citizens use it for 
(some more than others). The Internet was largely developed by the USA 
and is still largely controlled by US based organizations. As a result 
the USA can take the high moral ground about Internet freedom, while 
being able to control its use domestically.

For an understanding of the way the Internet was envisioned and the 
attitude of the ITU to it, I recommend Carl Malamud's 1992 book 
"Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue": in which he reports on 
discussion with Internet pioneers including Vint Cerf and Geoff Huston, 
as well as ITU bureaucrats: http://museum.media.org/eti/


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards
Legislation

Adjunct Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/