Internet Governance and the Multi-stakeholder Principles of the World Summit on the Information Society

Among other basic aspects of Internet governance, Pisanty resources are managed, the origin of multi-stakeholders and how their participation is structured as a result of the World Summit on the Information Society. The author underlines the complex relationship between emerging information and communication technologies, particularly the Internet, and their impact on the evolution of communications in today’s international society. He then gives an in-depth description of the complex mechanisms that intervene in Internet governance —understood as the set of regulations, joint programs and decisions that facilitate the management and organization of cyberspace— and which, as Pisanty so rightly points out, have far-reaching political, economic and social consequences. A rundown on the background of the major national and international organizations involved in Internet governance, such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), is provided and prospects for the development and control of the Internet in the short and medium terms are discussed. The author devotes a section of his paper to Mexico’s participation in the World Summit on the Information Society, particularly our contribution to the preparatory phase, before introducing us to the new Internet nomenclature and its meaning, which centers on Domain Name Systems, a term that governments, the international business community and civil society will have to learn to identify and become familiar with. Pisanty concludes that, if we are to build a democratic information society, the issue of Internet governance will have to take priority in the drawing up of public communications policies.