In December 2012 there was much discussion around the world concerning the meeting of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations agency that few members of the public have heard of. The ITU works to coordinate the worldwide use of radio spectrum and promotes international cooperation to improve telecommunications infrastructure by promoting the development of technical standards.

Part of the wider discussion about the ITU meeting concerned rumors that a move would be made to transform the present "stakeholder" Internet governance model to one controlled by the United Nations, in which national governments would play a greater role via the ITU. While no such revolution in Internet governance occurred, global reactions to the proposal reflected the growing significance of the Internet in modern society. Moreover, as more and more countries enter the information age and the impact of technology grows, we will see increased attention devoted to issues of governance, transparency and control.

Anne Fitzgerald and Anneliebe Moens, in their report "Regulating E-commerce -- Emerging Principles for the Regulation of Internet Transactions," identify four principles that characterize the evolutionary growth of the Internet: the equivalence of traditional and electronic transactions; establishing trust in electronic transactions; participation of non-government entities in the regulation of the Internet; and openness of the channels of electronic commerce.

Fitzgerald and Moens note that to date the major focus has been on the first two: equivalence and creating trust. However, as evidenced in recent times, increasing attention is now being devoted to the issues of governance and degree of openness.

In many respects this development is both natural and predictable. In its early years, the reach and scope of the Internet were far more limited; today, most countries including China have entered the Information Age. This has had a profound impact on all elements of society, including how we engage in commerce and how we carry out the functions of government. Thus, the growing importance of the Internet has given rise to discussions about the appropriate allocation of power and control of this new virtual world. In legal and political science literature, this has been termed "digital constitutionalism."

So profound has been the impact of the Information Age on modern society that Lawrence Lessig argued in his seminal work Code and other Laws of Cyberspace that in many respects "code" (in the sense of software and hardware) is today performing many of the functions that traditionally have been carried out by laws and regulation. For example, a software license and functionality determines who can participate in an area of activity and under what terms and conditions.

So, what is the best governance model for the Internet? Has it grown so large and so important that major aspects of its governance should no longer be left to non-government entities? What should be the role of national and other levels of government in the regulation of the Internet?

Finding answers to these difficult and complex governance and other questions will take time and a lot of discussion at multiple levels. What is clear is that we have gone well beyond the idyllic vision of earlier libertarian thinkers who called for a "Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" and for the Internet to be a "law free" zone. The reality is that with the Internet ad becoming a vital force in transforming society, governments and other stakeholders will want to be and must be involved. Working out the who, what, why, when and how of this governance and regulatory puzzle will be a top agenda item in the years ahead.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/eugeneclark.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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