Use and acceptance of local scripts on the Internet, will help entire local communities join the online marketplace, says Samiran Gupta, Head of India for ICANN.
Use and acceptance of local scripts on the Internet, will help entire local communities join the online marketplace, says Samiran Gupta, Head of India for ICANN.
The Internet is truly and surely becoming the catalyst that is starting to impact the Indian economy. Powered by expanding telecoms networks and investments, India is arguably one of the most exciting marketplaces today.
The government´s investment estimation of its flagship program – Digital India – is pegged at US$7 billion. Riding India´s growing Internet networks are tech startups. In 2015 startups in India saw investment of US$9 billion1. According to the same publication, as of April 2016, India has already seen startups get further funding of US$1.6 billion2. Another fresh wave of investments – leveraging the Internet – can be expected when the process of developing ´smart cities´ gather momentum.
The Indian economy is well on its way to be ´uberized´ as applications and Internet of Things (IOT) devices clamour for attention. Homegrown innovative products and services dot the landscape, touching banking, healthcare, travel, and education to name a few sectors. At this rate, India is poised to be a significant contributor to the ´next billion´ on the Internet and very quickly too.
Presently the global Internet penetration is around 3.2 billion users according to Internet Live Stats. India alone has over 400 million users, second only to China, which has over 640 million users. India has one of the lowest Internet penetrations globally at 33% but if all goes well, this is likely to change very soon.
The fact that the Internet had evolved so quickly and expanded at an exponential rate was something that the Internet´s founders had not expected. Why and how did this happen? This was because of the Internet´s multi-stakeholder model of governance, which allowed for permission-less innovation and expansion, and changed the lives of many, as we know today.
For India to grow with the Internet and leverage on its many potential benefits, local stakeholders will need to play a part in shaping its evolution as the next billion come online.
Let me come back to this article´s title – Internet governance.
Internet governance is the development and application by all stakeholders in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures and programs that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.
Stakeholders include business and private sector, governments, civil society, academic and technical community, etc; while the topics include areas such as protocol parameters (standards such as the length of a data packet), cyber security, how to combat spam, etc.
At its broadest scope, Internet governance involves managing the technical architecture of cyberspace, such as ensuring that anyone who enters a Web address anywhere (e.g. www.icann.org) in the world would be directed to its corresponding site, defined by its Internet Protocol (IP) address (192.0.34.163).
This co-ordination of the Domain Name System (DNS) to the IP address, is ICANN´s key role. This multi-stakeholder community forms the basis of ICANN´s inclusive, bottom-up decision-making model and participates in consensus-based policy making for the Internet´s domain name system.
Besides ICANN, the global Internet is co-ordinated by a collection of institutions which form a part of the multistakeholder environment. You may have heard of some of these institutions – IETF, W3C, ICANN, ISOC … but there are other institutions as well.
So the good news is that there are frameworks in place to ensure that the Internet remains stable and secure, protocols are tested and adapted, and capacity is built for the entire population of this planet. However, in the multistakeholder model, great pains are taken to ensure that there is no capture by any organisation or government. In this construct it is most important to ´claim one´s place´ at the high table of decision making. This claim is legitimised by ongoing and regular participation by stakeholders. In other words, no seats are ´reserved´ for anyone but everyone is invited to the party.
Especially in India, there are a few areas which need the involvement and participation of stakeholders. For example, the generation of local content and the development of internationalised domain names (IDNs). Imagine, hopefully in the not so distant future, conducting an online search in a local Indian language that leads to a website in local languges rather than only in English. Or sending and receiving emails in multiple languages, without having to switch keyboards to type an English (or ASCII as we call it) email address. All of this is possible but requires bottom-up community participation and contribution.
In the case of IDNs, the local community – code, linguistic and policy experts – need to come together to decide which characters of a local script can be a top level domain. This work is currently undergoing as part of ICANN´s IDN Programme. Thereafter, the acceptance and use of IDNs, such as having your email address entirely in devanagari script be usable not only within the Indian community but around the world, will require the entire Internet ecosystem to work together. The use and acceptance of local scripts on the Internet, will help entire local communities join the online marketplace.
So how does one get involved in Internet governance? The good news is that between 3 – 9 November, ICANN will be holding one of its three yearly public meetings in Hyderabad. This will be a great opportunity for the Indian community to join in the discussions. More information is available at www.icann.org.
Apart from that, an excellent place to start is by joining a local chapter of the Internet Society, if one exists in your city/region. In addition, ICANN´s At Large community (http://atlarge.icann.org/) provides you the opportunity to get involved in global and regional conversations. Apart from this, there is the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF), which is a regional body discussing Internet Governance-related issues. In India, I hope to work with all stakeholders to facilitate your participation in ICANN´s multistakeholder community.
1.http://yourstory.com/2015/12/indian-startups-raise-9billion-2015/
2.http://yourstory.com/2016/04/q1_2016-startup-funding-roundup/
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