Leader: Who best to drive the web?

When the great and the good gathered in South Korea last week for an OECD event on the future of the internet, there was a distinct feeling that the real action was not taking place in the main hall.

The event saw speakers from a panoply of government departments identify and discuss a range of key internet trends. But these speeches are unlikely to have been welcomed by many in the wider community of internet stakeholders.

Business leaders around the world inevitably get twitchy when bureaucrats start thinking they have a role in defining the future of the internet.

The internet has evolved rapidly because entrepreneurial spirits have been able to exploit its potential. Examples, such as mobile banking in developing economies, are not the fruit of an endless stream of bureaucratic diktats. Calls for the uptake of IPv6 across Europe to be accelerated were repeated at the OECD event by European Commissioner Viviane Reding, but this needs to be prompted by user value, not EC pressure.

For those seeking real thought leadership, however, there was some hope. Side meetings featured real internet heavyweights, including representatives from Amazon, Skype and Nokia. Let’s hope the bigwigs found the time to listen in.