Who can run the internet?

Icann conference

Who should decide how the global internet is run? And how can its operation be made as open and accountable - to all of the world’s population - as possible?

As 2400 delegates from 130 countries gathered this past week at Dublin's Convention Centre for the 54th public meeting of global internet governance organisation Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), those conundrums topped the agenda.

The Dublin gathering comes at a historical moment for the internet. President Obama decreed last year that stewardship of the most critical internet functions managed by Icann - the domain name and internet addressing system - should pass from US government oversight to that of the international community by September of next year.

In essence, Icann runs a complex, digital post office, and those seemingly mundane addressing functions make the internet the extraordinary social and economic phenomenon it has become in barely two decades. We can visit (or run) websites, post a picture to Facebook, send a tweet, buy goods, stream a movie, pay a bill, file our taxes, or read a news story on a smartphone thanks to the these technical standards and addressing structures.

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The internet is also a vital part of nearly every business. At the very least, day to day operations require internet connectivity and a web presence for activities such as email communication, product support, ordering and shipping, invoicing and payments. And as we know well in Ireland, home to some of the largest international internet-born companies, the web can be the entire business model for corporations that are key employers and contributors to both local and global economies.

Analyst McKinsey has estimated that the global digital economy will, on its own, be the fifth largest economy by 2016, contributing over $4.2 trillion to the collective GDP of the world’s 20 largest economies.

The politically and socially sensitive handover now under discussion has been part of Icann’s charter since its creation by the Clinton administration in 1998. Obama clearly felt the time for transition had come as international pressure, and real threats of a fractured internet and the greater economic, crime and security worries that could bring, rose following Edward Snowden’s revelations of secret digital surveillance by US spy agencies.

But who will make up that new, multi-stakeholder group and how will it function? What powers should it -and Icann’s board of directors - have, and what checks and balances? How best can any one interest, or alliance of interests, be prevented from seizing control?

The answers will determine the near and long-term future of the internet. But finding them by the September deadline will be intensely challenging, especially within Icann’s consensus-based approach, in which all the community has a say and a vote.

The tensions inherent in the process showed in Dublin, as delegates debated and confronted each other and the Icann board in this open process.

Much needed groundwork was done in Dublin. Whether enough was achieved to move the transition forward substantially towards next year’s deadline remains to be seen.