The Internet as Enlightenment 2.0

The Internet is proof that John Locke was right and Thomas Hobbes was wrong, says Bertrand de La Chapelle, program director of the International Diplomatic Academy in Paris and a board member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

The Internet's relatively ungoverned space hasn't given way to a nasty and brutish "war of all against all" as the dour political philosopher Hobbes might have guessed. Rather, for the most part, it has brought together naturally social humans who have policed themselves and each other through a complex mesh of experience raters, Facebook group administrators and volunteer editors, he said. "The reality is that when you give them the tools, people are a pretty cooperative bunch," de La Chapelle said. "Things like Wikipedia, even the rules of dispute resolution on eBay and Tweeting recommendations show the incredible natural tendency of people to get along much better than you'd expect." Based on the available evidence, De la Chapelle said, he's willing to make the "bold bet" that Internet governance -- or the lack of it -- can and will remain largely an ad hoc process in which nations, corporations, civil society groups and ordinary citizens all have their say.