I definitely have two-, three- and four-letter acronym fatigue. But after several days of following sessions at this week's meeting of Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), I have much greater insight into how the internet is run.

Icann winds up its 54th public meeting in Dublin today. Some 2,500 people from 130 countries were at the 10-day event in the Dublin Convention Centre. The centrepiece was the four-day public meeting segment, one of three such meetings Icann holds each year.

As I discovered, it isn’t easy to parachute in to an Icann public meeting, even if you follow its always-vigorous arguments, controversies, debates and dramas.

The acronyms nearly defeated me, for a start. As I sat through Tuesday's 2½-hour session of the NCSG – the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group – I was thankful for the wifi, as I was sent googling throughout.

Fascinating

Within Icann, there are the

CCWG

, the SOs, the GNSOs, the

GAC

, the

APAC

, the

ALAC

, the

ICG

and on and on. It was enough to send an Icann newbie out the door and shrieking down the quays.

But once the meeting settled in and I had googled enough to have some sense of what was going on, it was fascinating, a microcosm of all the pressing issues, concerns, interests and formal procedures within Icann at the moment.

The fractiousness is understandable, because inasmuch as the internet is “run” by anybody or anything, it is run by Icann.

The organisation was established by the Clinton administration in the late 1990s, as the US government moved the internet away from a government-run project to being a more secular platform. Icann was tasked with overseeing elements that ensure the net remains operational, such as agreeing technical standards, and developing the structures for managing domains and internet addresses.

Standards

These may seem like geek concerns, but they have societal implications and affect every one of us every time we go online.

Without a set of governing administrative and technical standards, the internet’s global platform could fracture into many different sub-highways and byways. It is always under threat of this , with some governments indicating they might prefer a closed national internet rather than a global one, with all the impact that might have on business, society, censorship, privacy and human rights.

Icann, as a powerful governance organisation at the centre of controversy and arguments pretty much from day one, tends to be a lightning rod for strong opinion, disagreement, anger . . . and a lot of commitment, passion, determination and energy.

If you look at the groups and individuals who get involved, the reasons why become clear. First, this is very much a community organisation. There are technologists, and if you know technologists, you will know how, ahem, strongly they can feel about a standard, a process, a right way and a wrong way to implement something.

Then there are the business groups that are well aware the internet is now a critical element of almost every business, regardless of whether the business itself is an internet-based business.

There are content developers concerned about others pirating that content.

Government representatives have their own sets of issues. Civil society groups from a vast range of interests also want a say in how the internet is run.

Then there’s the Icann board, which always seems to be at the centre of some controversy or another.

As I saw at this week’s meeting and within the debate at the NCSG session, every one of these constituencies wants a say, has a view, has a beef (or several), has an idea, has a proposal, has a concern.

Consensus approach

It’s all very complex, but Icann goes some way towards initiating the newcomer with good overview sessions on the first day of each public meeting. And it is truly a free, public meeting, based on a consensus approach to decision-making.

I found that pretty amazing in an era of closed doors and costly conferences. Anyone can come along, register and attend the sessions, listen in and pose questions to the various committees, policy bodies and the Icann board itself.

If you are interested in the closing drama and summary of all that's gone on, come down this afternoon when the event concludes with a public session in the auditorium and an open board meeting. (You can also view archived audio, video and transcripts of all the sessions online.)

It has been an eye-opener of a week. In particular, I came away with renewed respect for Icann’s often unsung, broadly defined “internet community of individuals” who care enough to give their own time and expertise to keeping the internet an open platform for us all.