Spring 2004 Netizen Empowerment and the 30th Anniversary of TCP/IP Volume 12 No 2 Netizen Empowerment and the group of researchers. This issue also includes two articles by Izumi 30th Anniversary of TCP/IP Aizu. One is on the role of netizens in Japan. The other was presented at a recent workshop of the This issue of the Amateur Computerist celebrates United Nation's World Summit on Information a little known but important anniversary in Internet Society (WSIS) held on February 27, 2004, in development. In May 1974 an article appeared in the Geneva Switzerland. technical journal, IEEE Transactions on Commun- WSIS is currently debating the issue of Internet ication, which would have an important impact on 1 governance and a number of people from different the world. This article titled “A Protocol for Packet organizations have been invited into the process. The Network Intercommunication” was written by Robert 2 particular task set for the Feb. 27, 2004 workshop E. Kahn and Vinton Cerf. was to propose the areas needing consideration to The article sets out the design and philosophy for determine a form for Internet governance. During the the creation of a protocol. The protocol, was to make summary meeting of the workshop, Robert Kahn, possible communication and interaction between who had chaired one of the sessions, indicated that he many different computer networks, networks under was surprised when netizen empowerment was raised different ownership, control, and often in different as a policy consideration for Internet governance. countries. Thus users in different countries and on Kahn wondered whether netizen empowerment different computer networks would be able to com- is an appropriate concept when considering policy for municate. This is the basis for the birth of the Internet governance. It helps to raise the question: Is Internet. It is also the basis for the birth of the it possible to create a governing structure for the netizen. Internet which leaves out the input and participation A common myth is that the Internet resulted of users, of netizens? I want to propose that this is a from development by the U.S. government and its critical question for anyone who claims to be consid- packet switching research on the ARPANET. The ering issues related to Internet governance. ARPANET, however, is but one network of a number Very little input from netizens is currently of different networks being built by May 1974, when possible into the WSIS process. There are a few the Kahn-Cerf protocol, as it was commonly known online forums that are difficult to join and contribute at the time, was officially proposed. The article, to, and which do not encourage netizen participation. “The Internet: On the International Origin and These forums can be viewed at: Collaborative Vision”, which is featured in this issue http://www.onlinewsis.org/ of the Amateur Computerist documents what is There is no way provided to send an email to largely an unknown history of the early development anyone who has posted on these forums. Nor is there of TCP/IP by collaboration among an international anyone who is part of the WSIS process who appears to be participating in the forums and considering how Table of Contents to present the issues raised to those who are invited to Editorial............................ Page 1 the UN meetings. Netizens and Internet Governance . Page 2 For example, one post on the forum helps to International Origin of the Internet . Page 5 raise critical issues for Internet governance – public Emergence of Netizens in Japan . Page 29 access for all, and participation in the decisions Page 1 affecting the future development of the Internet. The Commerce web site. The URL is: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntia- person posting on March 27, 2004 writes: “Internet home/domainname/proposals/hauben/hauben.html Governance covers different dimensions and wide- 5) See for example: ranging issues, hence daunting challenges in imple- http://www.circleid.com/article/ 91_0_1_0_C/ mentation. I would like to underline, in this respect, the issue of public access and widening the scope of public engagement in decision-making processes..... [Editor’s Note: On February 27, 2004, the Interna- 3 Best Regards, Safaa Moussa, EGYPT” tional Telecommunications Union held an experts Yet this post was largely ignored on the online workshop to address the question of Internet gover- forum, and in the continuing deliberations for WSIS nance. The following was presented as part of a panel as well. Just as the research developing the Internet chaired by Robert Kahn.] relied on the interactive participation and discussion among those doing the research work, so the continu- Netizen Participation in Internet ing governance of the Internet requires the participa- tion of netizens. A proposal to this effect was submit- Governance ted to the U.S. government in 1998 and was pre- ITU Workshop on Internet sented in an English and French version in the Ama- Governance teur Computerist.4 On the 30th anniversary of the official publica- Geneva, February 27, 2004 tion of the paper that proposed the protocol for the Izumi Aizu development of the Internet, this issue of the Amateur Deputy Directory, Computerist is dedicated to opening up this discus- Institute for HyperNetwork Society sion online among the users of the Internet, among [email protected] the netizens, rather than allowing it to be hidden behind the closed doors of the U.N. or of the U.S. I have been involved with “Internet Gover- government's ICANN.5 nance”, or areas of global Domain Name system management since around 1996. I was the Secretary Notes: General of the Asia and Pacific Association, which 1) V. Cerf and R. Kahn, “A Protocol for Packet Network became a formal member of the Steering Committee Intercommunication,” IEEE Transactions on Communications, of the so-called IFWP, International Forum on the Vol. COM-22, pp. 637-648, May 1974 http://cs.mills.edu/180/reading/CK74.pdf White Paper. The IFWP process was a global effort to setup a new body to manage the DNS, upon 2) The authors also give credit to an international group of receiving the call by the United States Government to researchers including L. Pouzin, R. Scantlebury, H. “privatize” and “internationalize” the DNS manage- Zimmerman, D. Davies, R. Metcalfe, S. Crocker and D. Walden. ment in an open and inclusive approach. We advo- at the end of their article. cated the equal participation in the process and the 3) The rest of the post reads: “It should be noted that ICT has body, eventually setup as ICANN, from Asia and become indispensable for quick access to information from all Pacific regional viewpoints. Today, I would like to over the world and from different sources. It is also a tool for provide my proposal of putting the “Netizens” into fostering decision-making processes and open dialogue, which the global governing framework of the Internet as we makes it imperative to improve public accessibility at the lowest cost possible throughout the world and come up with practical are tasked by the WSIS process to do. means for bridging the digital divide.” There is the WSIS Civil Society Internet Gover- nance Caucus. It has more than 60 individuals from Further public engagement, democracy and expression of views most of the regions of the world and worked very can be promoted through public accessibility to the Internet, to hard to contribute to the Civil Society Declaration for information, government services, policy documents, and civil society activities. http://www.wsis-online.net/igov-forum/ the WSIS in its Internet Governance section. I sug- forums/message-email?message_id=366112 gest to you to take the principles proposed there into serious consideration for the coming debate. It would 4) The URL for the proposal “The Internet: An International be more appreciated if this group gets formal recog- Public Treasure: is http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/text/acn9-1.art- nition and is invited as a group to the next phase of icles/acn9-1.06.txt. Also the proposal is online at the Dept of Page 2 the discussion including the Working Group under over 60% of the population or 70 million people are the Secretary General Koffi Anan. now using the Internet in one way or other, and 70% As we are all aware, we are facing a new kind of of the subscribers are now enjoying a highspeed challenge for this Internet Governance. broadband connection, which gives an “always on” The Internet made it possible to send and receive feature. Korea as you know has the highest penetra- information from anyone's desktop, laptop, or even tion of broadband, with 80% penetration to the from mobile phones on the go, with minimal cost, household and the usage is very high. China, now is very easily and instantly, to anywhere in the world, number 2 in terms of the number of users after the ignoring the geographic and institutional borders United States with 80 million people. The develop- including that of nation states. This fact poses trans- ment of I-mode in Japan gave rise to the use of national challenges that are difficult to solve by mobile phones to access the Internet, opening up the applying the traditional “nation” based approaches. age of ubiquitous, or pervasive networking. As Frankly, most of the current International or pointed out by many previous speakers, the Internet intergovernmental organizations were designed in the empowers the ordinary citizen with tremendous industrial age and not ready to deal with these na- power – sending thousands of e-mails to millions of tional or global issues as efficiently and effectively as people at a cost of a few dollars, sending both posi- we want.