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Improving the governance of information technology: Insights from the history of Internet governance
Author(s) -
Neena Pandey,
Rahul Dé,
M. N. Ravishankar
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
jit. journal of information technology/journal of information technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.939
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1466-4437
pISSN - 0268-3962
DOI - 10.1177/02683962211054513
Subject(s) - internet governance , corporate governance , the internet , parallels , project governance , corporation , actor–network theory , public relations , politics , stakeholder , network governance , government (linguistics) , information governance , sociology , business , knowledge management , political science , information system , computer science , economics , world wide web , law , social science , management , management information systems , operations management , linguistics , philosophy
Governance of the Internet is a matter of global importance and concern. The multi-stakeholder (MS) and multilateral (ML) forms have been presented as two competing and plausible models of Internet governance. Drawing on actor–network theory (ANT) and building on an interpretive case study of rich archival data, this paper examines how the focal actor’s (i.e. the U.S. government’s) beliefs influence the choice of Internet governance form. It further explores the strategies of the focal actor to translate the interests of the ML network’s supporters, with a view to enrolling them in the MS governance network. The analysis shows how the focal actor has established the MS governance form through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as an Obligatory Passage Point to keep the Internet successfully operational. The analysis also illuminates the combination of structural and collaborative strategies employed to allay the growing dissatisfaction with the MS governance form. The paper suggests that whilst the protocols and technical standards of the Internet are increasingly relegated to the background, the social and political network that Internet artefacts draw together in a meta-form has grown in prominence. It also argues that there may be a hierarchy of beliefs, which influence how actors enact their translation strategies. Finally, the paper discusses parallels between the MS/ML forms of Internet governance and IT governance in organizational contexts.

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