Internet Governance: The Way It Works Now

[Commentary] There has been a lot of talk recently about the ITU getting involved with regulating aspects of the Internet. But some of you may be wondering how the Internet is governed now. If you don’t have multiple hours to devote to the rabbit warren of Wikipedia articles on the subject, read on for a brief explanation of the current organizations involved in Internet governance. These organizations can be roughly divided into two major categories: international technical standards organizations and governance organizations. The technical standards organizations tend to deal with standards on a physical level: how to make a computer chip, for example. The governance organizations deal more with permissions and protocols: what are appropriate identifiers for computers on a network, or how to write a webpage that all computers will understand. But this is not a perfect rule, and there is significant overlap between the two groups.