Multistakeholder Governance for the Internet

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce how multistakeholder governance for the Internet initiated and evolved by showing key events, example disputes, and the current organization of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The Internet has been growing for the last fifty years. Both technological and deployment efforts drove the growth of the Internet. Since internet technology initially does not impose any border between computers communicating, it effectively provides connectivity globally. Globally available borderless networks create conflicts. For example, each of the nations controls the trademark registration, which is not unique if we look beyond jurisdictional borders. Once these registered names started using on the global Internet, there may be possibilities of conflicts of use of the name. To resolve such a dispute, we need a mechanism. The Internet’s multistakeholder governance born and start evolving since the so-called dot-com bubble time; finally, the movement established ICANN as a place to discuss issues among multiple stakeholders. Now ICANN is grown enough and showing how the Internet Multistakeholder model is useful for other fields.