Icann as the `United Nations' of the Global Information Society?

Abstract

In October 1998 the `Internet Corporation for Assignment of Names and Numbers' (ICANN), a global, not-for-profit private organization responsible for the governance of the Internet, was established under Californian law. The new corporation will be fully operational by October 2000. ICANN represents the global public Internet community as well as private industry involved in electronic commerce and has the mandate to coordinate and control the technical protocols of the Internet, the Internet address space, the Internet domain name system (DNS) and the Internet root server system. The article describes the efforts by the international community to create a mechanism for global Internet governance, and in particular for the DNS, the so-called `territory of cyberspace', where conflict between holders of domain names and trademarks has been growing over the years. After initial efforts failed to create a new mechanism under the Internet Society in 1995 and under the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 1997, the Internet Corporation for Assignment of Names and Numbers (ICANN), initiated by a US government White Paper (June 1998), seems to have received worldwide acceptance as the umbrella organization for the Internet. ICANN, its supporting organizations and its numerous committees (in particular the Governmental Advisory Committee) constitute a network mechanism which will guarantee stable and robust management of the Internet and will also give room for a dynamic and flexible response to new challenges which will emerge from the future development of the Internet. Whether ICANN, which will take over full responsibility for the Internet in October 2000, will be a purely technical organization or become an organization which deals also with the political, economic, cultural, social and legal aspects of the Internet - a `United Nations of the Information Age' - remains to be seen.