Who governs/regulates/controls the Internet?

The Internet grew as a collaborative network of researchers keen to share their discoveries in a simple, accessible way.

Because of this, there was no real need to regulate or control the Internet; the information was already free and was of interest only to other researchers, so it didn't need protection. But as the Internet has grown, it has become a more commercial, public entity and some who use it now wish it to be governed and policed to prevent certain types of abuse. However, so far there are Three volunteer groups had been formed to help coordinate and guide the technical parts of the Internet:

Internet Activities Board (IAB) - The technical body that oversees the development of the Internet suite of protocols. It has two task forces, the IETF and IRTF, which are charged with investigating a particular area.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) - Develops and maintains the Internet’s communication protocols. Addresses problems and coordinates new services.Appoints working groups to define standards, coordinate services between providers and performs the real work.

Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) - Look into long-term research problems that could be critical in five or ten years.

In addition to the three volunteer groups referenced above, the following projects and organizations have been formed to assist with the development of the Internet.

Internet Network Information Center (InterNic) - project sponsored by the NSF is conducted by AT&T and Network Solutions. The purpose is to provide the various registry services needed for the Internet to operate effectively.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - managed by the laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is a joint initiative between MIT, CERN, and INRIA to develop standards for the evolution of the Web.

Currently there are four companies that have a stronghold on the Internet. Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook are the big dogs on the block and would appear to invulnerable at first glance but are they? Of these four which do you think has the most secure position?

Google is huge. They have probably 85% of the search traffic. It’s become so big the noun has become a verb. “Go google it” is a common phrase. They have definitely expanded with maps, google earth, Google Chrome, youtube, the Android phone and of course the Chromebook. But it all really hinges on being the default search engine. They have a huge amount of power. When one company has so much control of the information flow around the world it can become a big problem. “With great power comes great responsibility”. True as that is great power also brings arrogance. History shows that whenever someone has achieved such a stronghold they eventually begin abusing that power and the people respond. Such could easily be the case with Google. One big possible thorn for Google is Facebook. People are more and more relying on Facebook for their daily computing needs. If Facebook continues to expand maybe people will eventually turn to Facebook for their internet information.

Facebook is another noun that has become a verb. “Facebook me” is a very common phrase as well. It’s huge and getting bigger everyday. Who knows Facebook may just become a memory in a decade. AOL was really a Facebook predecessor. In the 90’s a lot of people utilized AOL much like Facebook today. They had message boards, online communities email and such. When you consider how young Facebook is and really even the Internet boom, it’s not hard to imagine the constantly growing technology will bring about a lack of need for sites such as Facebook.

Apple is probably the weakest in this group. Although they have a huge presence with the likes of iTunes, iPads and iPhones their strength is really tied to their products. Unfortunately for everyone they lost the visionary for the company in Steve Jobs. They have to continue to be the main player in and handheld computing to remain on top.

Amazon surprisingly probably is the most secure of this group. They are not product dependent. Amazon has a huge logistical infrastructure in place that would be really tough to duplicate and even were someone to do so they would have to build up the customer base. Consider Blockbuster versus Netflix. Blockbuster was huge in the rental of videos. Netflix built a big business by mail of rentals. Blockbuster attempted to replace Netflix in the DVD by mail arena and failed. They already had a customer base and even the ability to go to the store and exchange your movie. Once a company has a secure foothold it is very hard to replace them. Amazon has a very secure future.