In a brief chapter in the report, Kangsik Cheon considers one of the areas where recognition of multiple cultures impinges directly on internet technology: in the construction and recognition of international domain names. Cheon is a senior executive with Korean company Netpia.com, which promotes candidate standards in this area.

Trevor Clarke considers questions of intellectual property, e-commerce and competition policy in the international environment, in the report. These are a unique set of issues in that, while exacerbated by the internet, they have huge relevance outside it.

In some areas, such as the legal status of electronic transactions and intellectual property forums such as WIPO, these questions are already being confronted on the international stage, he writes.

'Despite its very successful past, the internet is much too important to global peace and prosperity to be left alone,' says Clarke. 'The need for a global forum for internet governance is evident,' and this will have to take on-board the interests of society in general and the commercial corporations. 'Despite recent unilateral tendencies, the US has to be trusted to take its global leadership role seriously,' he writes.