Framing ‘Internet Governance’ Policy Discourse Fifteen Baseline.pdfVIP

Framing ‘Internet Governance’ Policy Discourse: Fifteen Baseline Propositions William J. Drake Director, Project on the Information Revolution and Global Governance Senior Associate, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development Geneva, Switzerland wdrake@ictsd.ch /affiliates/wdrake.htm Introduction • The term, “Internet governance,” has become a Rorschach test onto which some people project their fears and hopes. • Need for a neutral, non-ideological, and systematic discourse about the character and scope of governance activities. • To help facilitate discussion, fifteen baseline propositions on definitional matters, institutional attributes, key political issues. • Argue for a broad view of the governance architecture, include diverse mechanisms with varying degrees of direct indirect impact; does not preclude intensive focus on infrastructure/core resources, but rather contextualizes this. • Internet governance is a key galaxy in the universe of ICT global governance; the growing interrelations with other, more broadly framed governance arrangements must be considered. 1. “Governance” comprises shared rules, procedures, and programs that give rise to expectations and practices, assign roles to participants, and shape their interactions. • In the intra-organizational context, e.g. corporate governance, governance often involves centralized, top-down management. • In the inter-organizational context, or for a social collectivity, governance generally involves cooperation to define communally recognized and accepted rules, procedures, and programs. • Of course, special cases of governance that is unilaterally imposed on collectivities by exceptionally powerful entities, e.g.