So here we are! How did we get here? And, … where are we going?
A little over thirty years ago, in 1993, the first browser for the World Wide Web made its appearance. The web browser made the Internet accessible for the first time to a larger audience. Before that, hardly anyone had heard of the Internet. It was new, it was exciting, and very few people thought about policy issues or policy consequences.
But today the Internet is everywhere, everyone is using it. It underlies our modern mobile network communications, where phone conversations run over the Internet. It underlies many business models where the Internet is considered essential. And more and more governments are using the Internet for their online services.
For most people it has become simply part of daily life. A grandmother talking to her grandchildren over a WhatsApp video call. Thousands of films and series available for streaming at the touch of a finger. Businesses integrating their supply chains across continents. Governments bringing their services online.
The Internet has genuinely transformed the world for the better. And yet despite these successful interactions a couple of issues start to surface that fortunately most users never have to experience. But when they do occur, these issues can become critical and catastrophic. And for a business some issues can make the difference between success and bankruptcy.
Phishing attacks can steal your credentials and empty your bank account. Cybercriminals try to target financial systems. Governments use tools on the Internet to run cyber warfare against other countries. Artificial intelligence is weaponised for disinformation. Quantum computing threatens to break the encryption that protects every transaction you make online. Most of us are only dimly aware of any of this. And even less aware that the policy frameworks to address these challenges are still being built, contested, and in many cases not yet written at all.
How did we get here, and who is trying to fix it? That is a longer story, and I will tell it in the blog posts that will follow.
I have been present in this space for more than thirty-five years, actively participating in policy discussions that have taken place largely in rooms most people never enter, from the World Economic Forum to the G8, from the UN ICT Task Force to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and from the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development to the Internet Governance Forum that followed WSIS.
For much of that time I worked as a practitioner inside large institutions, operating behind closed doors, trying to influence outcomes from within. The Internet is now too important to too many people, and these issues too consequential for all of us, for that to be enough.
That is why I am restarting this blog. Stay tuned…
