Tomorrow (31st January) is the deadline for the release of drafts by the Working Group on Internet Governance. They can then be commented on until 16 February (which is the end of a two-day physical meeting) before being finalised the following 2 days for PrepCom 2 on 19 February, the preparatory meeting for the second World Summit.
What to look for? Well, development money to poorer countries and domain name issues (ICANN) may dominate. But to see how well the group is melding political, economic and technical solutions, look what they do on spam/unsolicited content. It’ll be a true test of their credibility.
So will the Internet be tamed, reduced to an appendage to the various next generation carrier class networks, with incumbents in charge? If so, that will make entry much harder, and have huge influence on the future of voice, media and video markets. It’s the huge imponderable that OfCom will find very difficult to factor into its consultations. Good luck to them.