There’s little doubt that the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis (November 16-18) is going to be dominated by the issue of who “runs the Internet.”

Despite the fact that the stated aim of this intergovernmental meeting is how to optimise the Internet as a tool for development, much of the talk in Tunisia will focus on the issue of who directs traffic on the information superhighway.

Some governments seek greater control over the Internet – what goes on it, how it is organized, and how they can better regulate it.

But for the business community, the debate in Tunis should not be about how to reign in this most phenomenal of tools, but rather how to encourage it to grow. How to aid its further expansion and thus extend the myriad, transformative qualities of the Internet to as many of the world’s inhabitants as possible.

In the eyes of the private sector, the best way for this to happen is for the existing arrangements for managing the technical coordination of the Internet to continue to evolve.

Under its current, distributed governance structure, the global number of users of the Internet has grown in the last seven years from 106 million to over one billion.

Admittedly, a large majority of that growth has been in developed countries, yet the fact remains - the current Internet governance structure works.

The extraordinary growth and continued success of the Internet is because it exists as an open network.

A network which is free from the bureaucratic restraints of government regulation, immune to the whims of any one interest group – be it governmental, private sector or civil society - and so wonderfully unwieldy and unfettered by restrictions as to defy manipulation.

While ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) – the US Department of Commerce-funded body which sets the technical rules for participation on the net - plays policeman on the highway, the board of directors overseeing its activities represent a sufficiently diverse range of stakeholders to ensure impartiality.

Moreover, under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding between the US government and ICANN, the domain name registration body is set to become more independent from the Department of Commerce by the end of 2006.

It is also worth questioning the motivations of those countries that wish to exercise greater government control over the Internet. Is it because they wish to ensure the delivery to their citizens of the plethora of new ideas, services, entrepreneurial and educational possibilities that the Internet promises? Is it because they want to expose their populations to the Internet’s unique ability to empower, educate, open minds and expand horizons? These are questions that need to be asked.

Nobody would argue that the Internet is a faultless force for good – an agent of positive change loaded only with wholesome information and educational materials. 

But if some of the proposals on the table to curtail the Internet are adopted and implemented by governments meeting in Tunis, the Internet will be punished for no greater crime than promoting free speech.

The business community believes this notion of “managing” the Internet is anathema to its very existence.

To subject the Internet to the same sorts of intergovernmental procedures as those which currently govern the United Nations would render it far less efficient.

This is not to criticise the UN, but rather to acknowledge there is a big difference between the arduous process of intergovernmental consensus-seeking and the high speed task of maintaining traffic flow on the information superhighway.

The scientific community was instrumental in the Internet’s creation, the business community has been crucial to its development and expansion, now both communities stand ready to help governments in its widespread distribution.

But there is no point giving people a highly attuned, extremely powerful tool if they do not have the sufficient training to properly use it.

Fundamental to the creation of a truly inclusive information society is so-called “capacity building” – both human and technical.

Education and training programs, jointly created and implemented by governments, the private sector and civil society – are crucial to ensuring those who log on are able to properly exploit the full potential of the tool to which they have been given access.

Meanwhile, proper technical infrastructures on the ground also need to exist – be it the actual cables and wires along which data travels, or the local systems which administer it.

Crucial to all of this is the creation of what we in industry call an “appropriate enabling environment”.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) will not flourish without business investment and national governments, in close consultation with business and civil society groups, are the only ones capable of creating an environment which is not only attractive to business investment, but allows it to flourish once it arrives.

To invest in a country, a company needs to be assured there is a transparency of institutions, a stable and predictable legal system and – importantly - a government commitment to market liberalization and competition.

Countries which have committed themselves to creating this enabling environment are already starting to see results – with burgeoning ICT sectors and suddenly empowered populations.

So let us look towards Tunis in the full hope that discussions over Internet governance will not overshadow progress which might otherwise be made enhancing the Internet as an agent of development.

The global community’s time in Tunis would be best spent examining how this remarkable tool, the Internet, can be delivered into the hands of people whose lives stand to be transformed by it.

Guy Sebban is the Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) www.iccwbo.org and chair of the WSIS Summit’s Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors – www.businessatwsis.net.

Click here for article in French

The article appeared in Le Temps, Switzerland (www.letemps.ch) on 9 November 2005 and Les Echos, France  (www.lesechos) on 18 November 2005.

A letter to the editor of the International Herald Tribune from Mr Sebban on this subject was also published on 12 November 2005.