Techno-politics, Internet Governance and some Challenges Facing the Internet

Abstract

This paper addresses the Internet as a terrain of techno-political controversies between various cultures with their interests and values, which have influenced the development of the Internet since the start. I describe what I call techno-political cultures of the Internet and then examine the dynamics of the RFC/IETF/ISOC and the recent Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as regulatory instances that are expected to handle the challenges of the Internet. It is argued that the Internet faces some structural changes for the IETF/ISOC, that cannot easily be met or resolved through the procedures of the Internet Governance Forum.

Available at: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/publications/RR15.pdf