Who governs the internet?
Most of the people worldwide access internet daily or frequently, but most of them (around 95%) don't know who actually governs the internet . They don't know who decides protocols for it and who take care of the whole processes incorporated with it. so let's try to know about the people who take care of it..
.
.
So who actually owns the Internet? There are two
answers to this question:
1. Nobody
2. Lots of people
If you think of the Internet as a unified, single entity,
then no one owns it. There are organizations that
determine the Internet's structure and how it works,
but they don't have any ownership over the Internet
itself. No government can lay claim to owning the
Internet, nor can any company. The Internet is like
the telephone system -- no one owns the whole
thing.
From another point of view, thousands of people
and organizations own the Internet. The Internet
consists of lots of different bits and pieces, each of
which has an owner. Some of these owners can
control the quality and level of access you have to
the Internet. They might not own the entire system,
but they can impact your Internet experience.
The physical network that carries Internet traffic
between different computer systems is the Internet
backbone. In the early days of the Internet,
ARPANET served as the system's backbone. Today,
several large corporations provide the routers and
cable that make up the Internet backbone. These
companies are upstream Internet Service Providers
(ISPs). That means that anyone who wants to
access the Internet must ultimately work with these
companies, which include:
UUNET
Level 3
Verizon
AT&T
Qwest
Sprint
IBM
Then you have all the smaller ISPs. Many individual
consumers and businesses subscribe to ISPs that
aren't part of the Internet backbone. These ISPs
negotiate with the upstream ISPs for Internet
access. Cable and DSL companies are examples of
smaller ISPs. Such companies are concerned with
what the industry calls the last mile -- the distance
between the end consumer and Internet
connectivity.
Within the backbone are Internet Exchange Points
(IXPs), which are physical connections between
networks that allow data exchanges.
For example, while Sprint, Verizon and AT&T
provide part of the Internet backbone's
infrastructure, the three networks aren't intertwined.
They connect together at an IXP. Several companies
and non-profit organizations administer IXPs.
The individual computer networks that make up the
Internet can have owners. Every ISP has its own
network. Several nations' governments oversee
computer networks. Many companies have local
area networks (LANs) that link to the Internet. Each
of these networks is both a part of the Internet and
its own separate entity.
Depending on local laws, the owners of these
networks can control the level of access users have
to the Internet.
You might consider yourself to be an owner of the
Internet.
Do you own a device that you use to connect to the
Internet?
If so, that means the device you own becomes part
of the enormous inter-networked system. You are
the proud owner of part of the Internet -- it's just a
very small part.
If no one owns the Internet, who is responsible for
making sure everything works? Find out in the next
section.
IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS ARPANET .
ARPANET was a network of computers housed in
various universities, government agencies and
research facilities. The people who built ARPANET
designed many of the protocols that the Internet
uses today. ARPANET connected to several other
computer networks and the Internet was born. The
agency responsible for ARPANET was the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a
branch of the United States Department of Defense
(DoD). Since ARPANET began as a U.S.
government-sponsored project, you could argue that
at one time, the U.S. government owned the
Internet.
