“If any subject is dull and uninteresting, it is IG or Internet Governance.” But actually, it is an issue, “gaining in importance. It is an issue that from the beginning has been very controversial,” explained Sha Zukang, the United Nations Under-Secretary General in charge of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, as he opened a briefing for UN member nations and others who were interested in the issue of whether or not the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) should be continued.(1)

In order to understand the issue of Internet Governance, and the context in which the IGF was created, it is important to know some of the history of the Internet. The development of the Internet was international from its very beginning, but much of the funding and leadership for that development came from the US government.(2) US computer scientists, engineers and graduate students had substantial roles in that development,… weiter lesen