Monday, September 22, 2003		Feature

A fight over the role of governments in managing the Internet is brewing as policymakers prepare for a UN-backed summit on the network’s future.

Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi of the Los Angeles-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) says two camps are forming over the wording of a key article to be adopted at the World Summit on the Information Society in December. "Some governments are arguing that the management of things like IP addressing, global domain names, privacy should be done by an inter-governmental organisation because they feel the Internet is a public resource, and they have responsibility over public resources," says Mohamed Sharil, who is chairman of ICANN’s government advisory committee.

"Then there are some governments who feel that the Internet should be managed by an international body," he told Reuters in an interview in Kuala Lumpur. "International by definition means everyone is involved, from governments to private sector and civil society. Whereas inter-governmental gives an indication that only governments are involved and not necessarily the people." Around 189 countries will be attending the summit in Geneva.

A non-profit organisation given the job of overseeing Internet addresses globally by the US government, ICANN will be attending the summit as an observer. Reuters