THE END OF THE EXPERIMENT: HOW ICANN's FORAY INTO GLOBAL INTERNET DEMOCRACY FAILED

摘要

The best way to manage the DNS, and the best way to prove that the Internet user community can be involved in the decision-making process on issues of global importance, are not one and the same. These two issues have been conflated in the debate over ICANN's legitimacy of authority. ICANN's failure to create legitimacy through representation and openness means that its structure ought to be reformed to achieve its narrow technical mandate. Regardless of whether ICANN can endure as a technical body, the community as a whole is left with the continuing need to establish a compelling theory for the governance of the technical aspects of the global Internet. Three key points emerge from this analysis of ICANN's experiment in governance structures. First, with a goal toward selecting the organizational structure most suited to its narrow mandate ICANN must move away from its semidemocratic phase, and continue to pursue substantial structural reform — more substantial than the marginal reforms proposed by ICANN's leadership to date. Second, ICANN should clarify the way in which users can meaningfully involve themselves in the decision-making process to mitigate the risk of demoralization and to get the most out of the input offered by the Internet user community in a manner that is constructive rather than distracting. Such reform should make sure that individuals know the extent to which their participation through various channels will be considered by the decision maker. Third, we need to look past ICANN's troubled story and toward emerging issues of how to govern the technical architecture of the Internet in an increasingly networked world.