Control point analysis

Abstract

As the Internet becomes more and more embedded in every sector of society, more and more actors have become concerned with its character, now and in the future. The private sector actors, such as Internet Service Providers or ISPs, are motivated by profits as they shape and evolve the Internet. The public sector is driven by a range of objectives: access and uptake, competition policy, regime stability, policies with regard to controlling access to classes of content, and the like. The range of actions open to governments to shape the Internet are traditional and well-understood, including law and regulation, procurement, investment in research and development, participation in the standards process and more diffuse forms of leadership. But these actions do not directly shape the Internet. They bear on the actors that in turn have direct influence over the Internet and what happens there. Thus, as part of any conversation about the shaping of the Internet, there is a narrower question that must be answered: given the Internet as it is today, who are the actors that can exercise direct control over how it works, what options for control do they actually have, and how can they in turn be influenced?