The 2001 edition of the State of the Internet Report reviews the changing architecture and demographics of the Web and the continued viability of numerous online business ventures. Major themes included in this year’s report are the continued emergence of a internationalized and culturally diverse online population and the shifts occurring in conventional thinking pertaining to online jurisdiction and the role of governments on the Web.

Section 1, The Global Internet, provides an overview of online demographics. In 2001 the online population crossed the half billion milestone and online demographics began to increasingly reflect offline realities. Significantly, native English speakers lost their dominance in 2001 and now represent approximately 45% of the online population. While North America, Europe, and Japan continue dominate the online world, several other nations such as China, India, and South Korea began to play larger roles.

Internet architecture is expanding to reflect these changes with new multilingual domain names and new Top-Level Domains. However, as growth continues, national legal jurisdiction are colliding in cyberspace and wrestling to determine the reach of national legal codes. In some cases the Web is being manipulated or censored, threatening the notion of a single, unrestricted World Wide Web.

Section 2, Net Society, surveys the progress being made in the fight to bridge the digital divide and examines how people use the Web and how government is adapting policy to address the impact the Internet is having on issues such as free-speech, privacy, access, taxation, and copyright protection.

Section 3, Technology, reviews technological innovations that are changing the shape of the Web and pushing the capabilities of the medium. Because of continued online growth, there is a pressing need to upgrade the Web’s architecture to a higher IP protocol and explore new online security tools. However, the emergence of widespread wireless Web technology and increased broadband penetration are changing how users think about the Internet and are propelling technological competition.

Section 4, Electronic Business, assesses the aftermath of the dotcom downturn and considers why some online business venture failed, while others took root and continue to growth. E-marketplaces, e-tail, content and service providers, application service providers (ASPs), peer-to-peer networks, customer relationship management (CRM) services, and e-learning services have all eked out a viable online business space.

This section also addresses the importance of setting up online operations in a conducive business environment. The English-speaking nations and Scandinavia have proved to be the most e-business ready environments in the world. However, nations such as France, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, and, South Korea all offer attract e-business cultures, with high levels of information technology investment.

Section 5, Online Government, focuses on the widespread global adoption of e-government around the world. Strategies and services differ from nation to nation, but the process and goals are similar. Some of the most mature e-governments include Canada, Singapore, the United States, Finland, and United Kingdom. E-government has the potential to fundamentally change how citizens and businesses interact with government by providing online services 24 hours a day. E-government is also widely lauded as a method to enhance government transparency and accountability. This process may compel many countries to redouble efforts to ensure against corruption and wasteful government practices.

In Section 6, Looking Forward, the United States Internet Council recognizes that it will be very difficult in the coming years to reconcile competing visions of Internet jurisdiction and development. However, the search for policies that can harmonize them is a useful and necessary pursuit that could prevent the medium from splintering into regional and national sub-Webs of limited value. The Council offers four basic principles for Internet leaders and policymakers, which we believe will hold true over the coming years.

I. The Council is certain that Internet services for the free and developed nations of the world will continue to bring far more benefits than problems for governments and the citizens they serve.

 

II. The Council believes that the best approach to Internet policy is one that allows the freest possible flow of information and the most unfettered access for all people to the benefits of the medium.

 

III. The Council recognizes that like newspapers, radio, television, movies, and other prior mass media that have transcended geographic boundaries in the past, the Internet in years to come will mirror the same cultural, economic, social, and political fault lines that underlie all international relations.

 

IV. The Council does not anticipate that these fault lines will nullify the unmistakable benefits of the Internet for most of the world’s people. But we do urge more serious academic study than has heretofore been conducted on how those who manage the architecture of the Internet might best accommodate, on a voluntary basis, those cultures that feel threatened by outside influences and still remain true to the first principles of free speech.