Video On Demand

The Geopolitics of Internet Governance

May 23, 2013 • 1:00 – 3:00 pm EDT

The panel featured:

Phil Verveer
Former US Coordinator, International Communications and Information Policy, US Department of State

Veni Markovski
ICANN, Vice President for Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe

Sally Wentworth
Senior Director, Strategic Public Policy

Bill Smith
Senior Policy Advisor, Technology Evangelist, PayPal

Laura DeNardis
Associate Professor in the School of Communication, American University

Moderated by:

David Vyorst
Co-Founder, Relay Station Social Media LLC

James Lewis
Director and Senior Fellow, Technology and Public Policy Program, CSIS
 

A paper, Control Point Analyses, was mentioned during the panel discussion. The paper offers academic insights into key technical aspects of the internet and the impact they have upon internet governance. The paper begins by exploring the operational elements of the internet that determine how influence may be exerted over the system. The analysis then focuses on how actorsleverage power within these parameters and the extent to which doing so is actually possible.

The paper is available for download at:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2032124

Quick Guide to Acronyms Used:

Organizations:

ICANN- Internet Corporation of Assigned Naming and Numbers

http://www.icann.org

GAC- Governmental Advisory Committee

https://gacweb.icann.org/display/gacweb/Governmental+Advisory+Committee

ITU- International Telecommunications Union

http://itu.int/en/Pages/default.aspx

WSIS- World Summit on Society and Information

http://www.itu.int/wsis/index.html

IGF- Internet Governance Forum

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/

IETF- Internet Engineering Task Force

http://www.ietf.org/

ISOC- Internet Society

https://www.internetsociety.org/

Technical Terms:

IP Address- Internet Protocol Address

IPv4- Internet Protocol Address version 4, the most common current version.

IPv6- Internet Protocol Address version 6, the latest version of IP addresses currently being implemented.

DNS- Domain Naming System

TLD- Top Level Domain, e.g. the .org in csis.org

gTLD- Generic Top Level Domain, none country affiliated top level domains such as .org and .com

New gTLD- New Generic Top Level Domains.  This is a system being implemented which is expected to expand the current number of gTLDs from around 20 to the thousands.  An example of a new gTLD would be .csis in techpolicy.csis.

ccTLD- Country Code Top Level Domain Name, e.g. .us in America.us

UDRP- Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Process.  UDRP is a process through ICANN for a trademark holder to file a grievance if they feel someone has registered a domain which is infringing on their trademark.

Additional Information:

If you wish to read further, ICANN maintains an extensive glossary of internet governace terms and acronyms on their website: http://www.icann.org/en/about/learning/glossary