There have been efforts to make research into new territories (for example, Antarctica, outer space, and orbs), new intellectual values, or new constructions (for instance, fundamental research in pure/basic sciences, and some technology standards) globally available for common (not country- or company-owned) long-term optimal exploration. In the case of the Internet, there have been strong supporters of such tendencies gaining great results. Nevertheless, the status of the Internet is controversial, reflecting its origin, its development, and the current state of the world.

The Internet was born as the result of US military projects, but its progressive application in the communication among the scientists of Western research centers led to its quick expansion to government, the public, and higher education spheres. Besides Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), other types of applications were built on the Internet Protocol suite, enabling its wide-ranging, flexible use. Having realized the success of non-profit Internet services, commercial services were allowed in 1992 and have become dominant since then. The Internet has permeated all sectors and actors of society, and gained fundamental importance in the lives of citizens of modern countries. Despite the distributed behavior of the Internet, some of its central controlling bodies and equipment remained under US authority. The manner and measure of the supervision or control of the Internet, and the role of existing and prospective actors, are the focus of worldwide debate. For this reason, Internet governance is a hot topic with all interested parties: states; the United Nations; existing organizations playing a role in its governance; and companies, organizations, and societies using the Internet.

The intent of the authors is to pay attention to and help to overcome the contradictions, to achieve a better and forward-looking solution by summarizing the history of Internet governance until about August 2013. They introduce the players, main principles, and policies from many perspectives. After the unsuccessful World Conference of International Telecommunications in 2012 (WCIT-12), they organized an expert workshop in May 2013 in Geneva to reflect on challenges and scenarios for the future. The book--with an editorial introduction and a conclusion, and nine chapters written by different experts--is a result of this collaboration.

The introduction describes the chronology of Internet governance from its beginning in the 1990s: the different organizations, their changing function, and major events during typical phases of this period.

The chapters are grouped into three parts. Part 1--about actors, institutions, and principles of Internet governance--starts with a theoretical summary of forms of governance and their inadequacy for studying Internet governance. Conclusions of this chapter emphasize the role of Internet users relative to official governors. Chapter 2 discusses the competition of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) by sketching three scenarios of regulatory instruments, and demonstrates the demands facing these organizations. Chapter 3 describes the development of new stakeholders in parallel with the spread of the Internet.

Part 2 discusses features of “multi-stakeholderism” and its conflicting requirements. Chapter 4 describes the contradictory role of the US in the governing organizations of the Internet, as well as essential consequences and dangers caused by the dominance of US company giants. The author explains why real multi-stakeholder governance is required. Chapter 5 provides a general treatment of multi-stakeholderism, enumerating requisites stepwise, beginning with the basic up through taking into account human rights, accountability, and democratic, inclusive legitimacy. The author argues that these general criteria can and should be applied in the case of the Internet. Chapter 6 describes how the principles of multi-stakeholder governance appeared in events related to Internet governance.

Part 3 deals with Internet security, one of the most problematic themes of Internet governance. Chapter 7 tells the history of the Chinese Internet, discussing internal and foreign issues and achievements. Chapter 8 deals with extending cybersecurity to the infrastructure of the private Internet. Chapter 9 discusses possibilities for more open, networked security governance strengthened by different types of security organizations, teams, and experts.

In the concluding summary, the editors discuss basic principles related to democratic Internet governance and its multi-stakeholder vision of dynamic institutional architecture: legitimacy, cooperation, participation, accountability, transparency, and efficiency. The editors and the authors have done very careful work: the book’s structure is beyond that of conference proceedings.

There are many successful and sophisticated examples of multi-stakeholder organizations besides those mentioned in the book. Standardization by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Internet Society (ISoc), the development of free and open-source software by communities, and the development of Wikipedia provide valuable analogies for the problems of Internet constitutional provisions and governance.

The book deals with the main controversies around governing organizations of the Internet, and treats surveillance and security themes in detail. It does not discuss the possible sub-themes/fields among different types of stakeholders.

Despite the lack of details, the book gives an interesting, multipurpose overview on the history of actors and policies governing the Internet. I warmly recommend the book to those who are interested in the controversial status of Internet governance and the issues to be resolved, and who want to understand the history of the actors and policies governing it.

Fundamental issues of Internet governance have remained unresolved, without much progress since the closure of the book. The US NSA surveillance scandal in 2013 heightened the situation. It is important to note that leaders of a number of organizations involved in coordinating the Internet’s global technical infrastructure--including ICANN--were represented in an important constructive common statement on the future of Internet cooperation (Montevideo Statement, released on 7 October 2013). Besides them, many organizations and meetings try to clarify aspects of the situation and make proposals. To follow up on the progress and events since the closure of the book, I recommend the websites of some central organizations, the roles of which supplement each other: ISoc (http://www.internetsociety.org/); the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) (http://www.internetgovernance.org/); and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (http://www.w3.org/). These organizations deal thoroughly with themes according to their roles. The Geneva Internet Platform (GIP) (http://giplatform.org/) gives an overview of forthcoming and past events.