Internet Governance - Dissertation Example

The Internet's expansiveness and socio-economic importance has created challenging global policy issues. A co-ordinated attack on key infrastructure components or a major security breach could now have significant economic and social repercussions. Even mundane responsibilities like IP number system and DNS administration or technical standards setting have been controversial, including questions about their global inclusiveness. Globally, the digital divide not only captures access impurity but also nationally imposed content restrictions for those already connected.

The Internet is not defined by the geographic boundaries that govern nations and laws of the non-virtual world. Without a clear jurisdictional framework for the Internet, scholars, businessmen, and laypersons have been left to decipher in a piecemeal fashion what set of laws and norms, if any, shall govern this forum. The United Nations recognises 189 sovereign countries throughout the world, each with its own system of governance and legal framework. This leaves a vexing international question of who should exercise power over Internet activity and what standards shall be upheld.1.1 Internet GovernanceThe Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a private Unites States of America not-for-profit corporation that has taken responsibility for allocating Domain Name System (DNS) and IP addresses.

ICANN co-ordinates the DNS system: it delegates the management of top level domains and ensures the global database is coherent. The Internet root is a file, whose maintenance is delegated by the Department of Commerce of the American government and ICANN to a technical service provider.. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a private Unites States of America not-for-profit corporation that has taken responsibility for allocating Domain Name System (DNS) and IP addresses.

ICANN coordinates the DNS system: it delegates the management of top-level domains and ensures the global database is coherent. The Internet root is a file, whose maintenance is delegated by the Department of Commerce of the American government and ICANN to a technical service provider. This file is then replicated to the other root servers. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a technical coordination body for the Internet, which are specifically coordinating Internet domain names, IP address numbers, and Protocol parameter and port numbers.

In addition, ICANN coordinates the stable operation of the Internet's root server system. ICANN's mission is to coordinate technical and policy functions of the DNS in order to promote a safe, stable and commercially viable domain name system, promote competition, and achieve broad representation of global Internet communities. These co-ordinated functions stand in stark contrast to the ad hoc basis on which U.S. government contractors and grantees, and a wide network of volunteers handled many of these key issues.

While this informal structure represented the spirit and culture of the research community in which the Internet was developed, the growing international and commercial importance of the Internet necessitated the creation of a technical management.