Multistakeholder Decision Making in Global Internet Governance

Ever since the WSIS, Internet governance practitioners and analysts have been debating the strengths, shortcomings and ambiguities of multistakeholder models of international cooperation.  During that time, the model followed within the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has been significantly enhanced in terms of its stability, transparency, accountability, and inclusivity.  In parallel, some intergovernmental organizations concerned with Internet-related matters have taken steps to increase their own transparency and allow varying levels of multistakeholder input and engagement. But despite these developments, it is not clear whether actual multistakeholder decision making has any prospect of spreading beyond the few policy spaces where it is already in place, i.e. ICANN and related Internet technical community bodies.  On the one hand, there are no signs that any intergovernmental organization plans to significantly deepen multistakeholder participation in its processes.  On the other hand, significant multistakeholder collaborations like the NETmundial meeting have not engendered focused follow-up and implementation efforts, and proposals to create new multistakeholder mechanisms have failed to gain traction.  

With these considerations in mind, the purpose of this brief workshop is to raise some questions that may merit further consideration in future venues.  For example, has the growth of multistakeholder decision making plateaued, or are there any plausible opportunities for it to progress in a helpful manner, e.g. with respect to cybersecurity?  Can the levels of multistakeholder input and engagement currently allowed by some intergovernmental organizations be meaningfully enriched in ways that would be value-adding?  Could anything be done to build upon the NETmundial and more issue-specific initiatives  in order to strengthen the global Internet governance ecosystem?

This workshop is organized by ICANN’s Noncommercial Users Constituency, which is the home for civil society organizations and individuals in the Generic Names Supporting Organization.  NCUC currently comprises 538 members from 161 countries, including 118 noncommercial organizations and 420 individuals. www.ncuc.org