11/17/2005

Possible Internet Changes

The internet has opened up the global market tremendously. It has made communication a breeze and has aided in the development of thousands, if not millions of businesses. There is an issue at hand that may create some major changes in the interent. The issue is internet goverance. The internet has been overseen by ICAAN since 1988. This is a multinational group, but the U.S. representatives dominate it. Lately, there have been various proposals concerning how to oversee the internet. One of which is that it states that all governments should have "an equal role and responsibility for Internet governance and for ensuring the stability, security and continuity of the Internet..." On paper this sounds great, but how will it impact the global market in practice. I believe that the internet needs to remain as is. In its current state, it has proven to be an extremely effective tool for conducting business all around the world. By making changes to it, there will be both positive and negative consequences;I fear the negative will outweigh the positive.

2 comments:

pramahaphil said...

I agree that messing around with regulating the Internet could substantially hurt commerce. However, I do wonder how effective is international governance. Although I hate to see the Federal or state governments get involved in another aspect of our lives, some issues need some strong regulation and enforcement (i.e pornography, spammers).

Dr. Tufte said...

What you are seeing is a grab by governments for the potential to horn in on your consumer (and possibly producer) surplus.

You need to keep in mind the point of Chapter 7 - at best this comes with a deadweight loss, and it can get a lot worse.