The United Nations is building a new platform for the discussion of global Internet policy. Public consultations on this new “Internet Governance Forum” will be held in Geneva February 16-17. IGP releases a new discussion paper explaining how the Forum could work. The paper proposes three design criteria for the Forum: 1) It must be as open as possible and give all stakeholders equal participation rights; 2) its deliberations must be wide-ranging and resist politically motivated barriers to discussion; and 3) its products must feed into other, more authoritative Internet governance forums. We proposed a structure and process for the realization of these objectives. We also set out three policy problems that exemplify the kind of issues the Forum should take up: spam, Internet free expression, and public policy principles for the coordination of Internet resources.
Will The Internet Fragment?
“In characteristically rigorous fashion, Mueller’s outstanding book punctures the alarmist myth of Internet fragmentation and helps us to understand what is really at stake as nations and other groups vie for power over the Internet.”
Jack Goldsmith, Harvard Law School