Nevertheless, they, and their fellow authors see great hope for the reach of internet communications in expanding markets and even improving real-life governance and government practice.

'When corruption flourishes, citizens become increasingly disillusioned and disengaged,' said Hagen and Lal. 'ITs have become a means to bring governance to the wider public and to increase public pressure for transparently functioning institutions.'

This potential conflict between the internet and real-world governance is where a good deal of the debate is currently centered. However, the debate runs the risk of missing the point through an obsession with the mechanics of internet naming and numbering and who is to control this.

'Excessive focus, first on internet governance generally and then, almost exclusively on the names and numbers, has made the whole WSIS [World Summit on the Information Society] effort a waste of goodwill effort, genuine work and genuine hope to make the information society inclusive and its development beneficial to all' writes Alejandro Pisanty in the UN's Reforming Internet Governance: Perspectives from the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG).

The WGIG was convened in parallel with WSIS, to arrive at a definition of internet governance and an appropriate structure for reconciling the technical structure of the internet, and the way it is operated, with the broader public policy interests of governments.