| Summary: | Global debate over alternative approaches to governing the Internet has been wide
ranging, but increasingly has pivoted around the wisdom of “multistakeholder
governance.” This paper takes controversy around a multistakeholder versus an
alternative multilateral approach as a focus for clarifying the changing context and
significance of Internet governance. A critical perspective on this debate challenges some
of the conventional wisdom marshaled around positions on the history and future of
Internet governance. By providing an understanding of the dynamics of Internet
governance, this paper seeks to illuminate and engage with issues that are of rising
importance to the vitality of a global infrastructure that is becoming more central to
economic and social development around the world. Based on the perspective developed
in this paper, a multistakeholder process appears best suited for helping a widening array
of actors, including multilateral organizations, to connect a worldwide ecology of choices
that are governing the Internet.
|
|---|