Icann The Organization And Governance Of The Internet

Pre-University Paper from the year 2009 in the subject English - Applied Geography, grade: 13 Punkte, Gymnasium Königsbrunn (-), language: English, abstract: “When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web... Now even my cat has its own page.“ This quotation by Bill Clinton from 1996 describes exactly the evolution of the Internet. Only a few years ago, hardly no one of us had any idea what the Internet really was, what it would be good for, or how we might use it. Today most of us could not even live without it just for one day. We permanently use the Internet for so many purposes. News, entertainment, communication, file sharing, shopping, education and many more things like these. Nowadays the Internet is also a basic element for various sectors which totally depend on it, such as telecommunication, the economy or infrastructure. But how does this highly complicated system actually work? And how is it possible that each web site can be reached any time by everyone worldwide?

The volume explores the consequences of recent events in global Internet policy and possible ways forward following the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12). It offers expert views on transformations in governance, the future of multistakeholderism and the salience of cybersecurity. Based on the varied backgrounds of the contributors, the book provides an interdisciplinary perspective drawing on international relations, international law and communication studies. It addresses not only researchers interested in the evolution of new forms of transnational networked governance, but also practitioners who wish to get a scholarly reflection on current regulatory developments. It notably provides firsthand accounts on the role of the WCIT-12 in the future of Internet governance.

The significance of the governance of the Internet is increasing and the issue has become the subject of growing public and media interest. This book takes a detailed, systematic, and non-polemical look at the issue.

As the Internet grows and becomes more pervasive in all aspects of modern society, the question of how it should be governed becomes more pressing. Currently, an important aspect of the Internet is governed by a private sector, international organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which manages and oversees some of the critical technical underpinnings of the Internet such as the domain name system and Internet Protocol (IP) addressing. ICANN makes its policy decisions using a multistakeholder model of governance, whereby a “bottom-up” collaborative process is open to all constituencies of Internet stakeholders. A key issue for Congress is whether and how the U.S. government should continue to maximize U.S. influence over ICANN's multistakeholder Internet governance process, while at the same time effectively resisting proposals for an increased role by international governmental institutions such as the U.N. The outcome of this debate will likely have a significant impact on how other aspects of the Internet may be governed in the future, especially in such areas as intellectual property, privacy, law enforcement, Internet free speech, and cybersecurity. Looking forward, the institutional nature of Internet governance could have far reaching implications on important policy decisions that will likely shape the future evolution of the Internet.

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the distrib. set of databases residing in computers around the world that contain address numbers mapped to corresponding domain names, making it possible to send and receive messages and to access info. from computers anywhere on the Internet. The DNS is managed and operated by a not-for-profit public benefit corp. called the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Contents of this report: Background and History; ICANN Basics: ICANN¿s Relationship with the U.S. Gov¿t.; Affirmation of Commitments; DOC Agree. with IANA and VeriSign; ICANN and the Internat. Community; Adding New Generic Top Level Domains; ICANN and Cybersecurity; Privacy and the WHOIS Database. Illus.