If you don't know the answer to that question, you should look into it. "WSIS" is an acronym that stands for the World Summit on the Information Society, which has been convened by the United Nations, and which is administered by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the global treaty organization that manages telecommunications strategy and related matters. WSIS has been chartered with such worthy goals as ensuring that the benefits of the Internet and the Web are shared by all peoples everywhere. But it has also decided to look into the question of Internet governance -- or, as they like to say in WSIS, "Who Should Govern the Internet?"

If you don’t know the answer to that question, you should look into it.

“WSIS” is an acronym that stands for the World Summit on the Information Society, which has been convened by the United Nations, and which is administered by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the global treaty organization that manages telecommunications strategy and related matters. WSIS has been chartered with such worthy goals as ensuring that the benefits of the Internet and the Web are shared by all peoples everywhere.

But it has also decided to look into the question of Internet governance — a topic that is now the province of ICANN, on the domain name side, and of the W3C, IETF and various other voluntary consensus groups. Some have said (or reported that this is a power grab by the ITU. Or perhaps its must the fact that ICANN was chartered by the US government, which rankles many.
Although this has not received much press in the U.S., we have been covering the WSIS/WGIG process for some time (see, for example Who Should Govern the Internet?) and will continue to do so.

Which brings us to the point of this post: the report of the fourth meeting of the most recent meeting of the Working Group on Internet Governance (or WGIG, which was formed by the WSIS) has been posted, along with various statements and other materials, at the WGIG site. You can follow things as they progress at this Blog by clicking on the WSIS/Internet Governance link under “Topics I’m Covering,” on the left side of this page.