Lest you think a U.N. meeting to discuss the future of the Internet would be a ponderous, low-key affair, consider this remarkable tale. Back in 2003, when the U.N. held just such an event in Geneva, the delegates unexpectedly decided to close the meeting to nongovernmental officials and to eject a handful of attendees. One of them was Paul Twomey — president of the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN), a private, nonprofit company that oversees technical aspects of the Internet’s address system — who was escorted by guards to the exit.The surprising turn of events underscored the simmering resentment felt by many nations, especially in the developing world, over the governance of the Internet. They had been vexed for years about what they perceived as a lack of voice in how the Net was run — and by the continued U.S. ownership of key Internet resources. Some said that excluding ICANN, which works under contract to the U.S. government, was a fitting lesson in powerlessness for an organization that had enjoyed sweeping control since its founding in 1998.
http://businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2008/gb20080623_136988.htm