Abstract:
The worldwide growth of the Internet in the mid-to-late 1990s led to explosions in commerce and communication--but also to vexing regulatory challenges. By its very nature, the World Wide Web transcended national boundaries and thus the regulatory systems of sovereign nations. Given that reality, how could disputes about essential elements of its governance be adjudicated? This case is a definitive account, based on interviews with key participants in the process, of the development and philosophy of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the US-based nonprofit that became the vehicle for world wide internet governance. The case describes the origins and expansion of ICANN (starting with its predecessor organizations in the Web's earliest days) and its approach to the commercially and politically sensitive issue of "domain names" (the key internet address locators). Notably, the case tells the story of the design and implementation of the first-ever international election for ICANN's board of directors. The case is designed to raise questions about the changing nature of regulation in a transnational era. Specifically, it explores issues related both to the functioning and legitimacy of supra-national regulatory institutions.
