In Montevideo, Uruguay this week, the Directors of all the major Internet organizations – ICANN, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Society, all five of the regional Internet address registries – turned their back on the US government. With striking unanimity, the organizations that actually develop and administer Internet standards and resources initiated a break with 3 decades of U.S. dominance of Internet governance. A statement released by this group called for “accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing.” That part of the statement constituted an explicit rejection of the US Commerce Department’s unilateral oversight of ICANN through the IANA contract.” 2- My first take was that the signers didn’t mean to go so far. But after reading some comments from Fadi Chehade of ICANN and talking to some people, I wrote a first look that this might “a Declaration of Independence of the Net.” Since then, I’m even more confused as people weigh in. U.S. Ambassador Danny Sepulveda in Bali, October 2013, actually seemed to endorse Montevideo, but I haven’t heard anything similar from the U.S. NTIA, which has the responsibility for overseeing ICANN. 3- Columbia University (Noon New York time) will host a webinar that I hope will get more information. “Is there a third way for the Internet?”
Professor Milton Mueller
