Power to the people - an old slogan for a new age

Who rules the web? Right now, a lot of people think the internet is controlled by the United States. The European Union would like a slice of that action. So would the United Nations.

So here's a simple solution to the debate that preoccupied Government representatives at a summit on internet control in Tunisia last week. The net should be supervised by the people who have pioneered it: You and me, ordinary people who come together spontaneously to make the internet what it is.

The last thing it needs is any form of bureaucratic control.

There is, naturally, more at stake in any discussion of control than just domain names and dotcom addresses.

"There are a number of countries that would like to influence what people see on the internet, yet the way it is controlled makes that difficult," said Jonathan Zittrain, professor of internet governance and regulation at Oxford University.

The essence of this debate is whether the internet is overseen by the US - or by anyone at all.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, is the closest thing the net has to a regulator. A US-based non-profit organisation set up by the Clinton Administration, Icann sets domain names and lays down the rules by which the internet operates. In the eyes of some, that means the net is US-dominated.

The World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis considered ways of broadening control of the internet. "The heart of the internet governance debate revolves around who sets the rules for managing key internet resources such as domain names and internet protocol addresses," the organisers said. "As the globalised internet becomes a critical element of infrastructure everywhere, many stakeholders...recognise that an internet in which any single Government has a pre-eminent role is no longer acceptable, nor sustainable."

The EU and the UN pitched for a role in creating a new form of internet governance. In the end, a compromise appears to have been reached in which a global forum will be created.

"The idea of a global forum seems attractive to many participants, but how such a forum would function or be financed is still being negotiated," conference participants said. Underlying this argument is a questionable proposition. Is the internet really US-dominated? And even if it is, is there anything wrong with that?

It is certainly true to say the internet is dominated by US-based individuals and companies. Its technologies were mostly created in the US. The big players such as Amazon, Google and eBay are all based there.

Yet that isn't quite the same as saying they control it. Soccer is dominated by Brazilians, but that is just because they happen to be good at the game, not because they are stopping anyone else from kicking a round ball around a rectangular field.

Likewise, Americans may dominate the internet simply because they are good at using it.

There is little evidence that the US is stopping anyone from using the internet. Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda terrorist leader, is one of the most successful users of the internet for propaganda and communications - mainly to attack the US and its interests. If the US really controlled the internet for its own ends, wouldn't it have stopped him by now?

The reality of the web is that it resists control by anyone. Over the years, lots of people have tried to impose some kind of order on the sprawling chaos of the internet.

The Chinese Government has tried to control access to web pages. Microsoft tried to limit the type of browser we use. Likewise, Governments have been rattled by the unfettered access to the opinions and arguments that the web allows.

None of them work. The internet is anarchic. It thrives on disruption and chaos. In reality, it is all about redistributing power and influence from the centre to the fringes. Whether that power is political, corporate or financial doesn't make much difference.

The web chips away at the power of people who have lots of the stuff and passes it on to those who don't.

That's why the answer to who controls the internet should be simple: You and me.

The longer it stays that way, the better.

- BLOOMBERG