Long abstract

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The Internet stands out as an extremely dynamic medium, even by the standards of rapid change which increasingly characterise the communications sector. In large part, due to this dynamism, Internet governance best lends itself to self-regulatory models. Among OECD governments, there is a strong preference for the private sector to take the lead in developing self-regulatory approaches suited to the new environment. There is increasing recognition that this is a critical requirement for the growth of electronic commerce.

At the same time, the trend toward regulatory forbearance in the communications sector, on the part of governments, does not obviate the need for policy makers to better understand how the Internet is evolving and to assess policy implications. Ready access to available indicators, in areas such as infrastructure development, is fundamental to better understanding the networks which enable electronic commerce. From a policy perspective such indicators are also important. Recent examples, where indicators have been used to inform issues include the management and administration of the domain name system, as well as trying to assess the impact of mergers on the level of competition in Internet backbone markets. Internet indicators may also help to inform issues related to convergence, between different communication platforms, as the Internet develops more multi-media capabilities. In addition new issues may arise where there are tradeoffs between technological limitations and competition questions, such as in IP number portability. As the Internet expands it can be expected that the use of indicators will increase in both the public and private sectors.

Following the discussion at the OECD/OSIPP Internet workshop in Osaka, held on 10 June 1998, this paper is aimed at providing a discussion, and reference document, of available Internet infrastructure indicators for policy makers and industry self-governance initiatives. Expressed in bullet point form the main objectives are: to provide a reference document for policy makers pertaining to available online information generated by online surveys and Internet network co-ordination, such as the Internet's name and addressing system; to discuss new indicators of Internet infrastructure development, such as the use of traceroutes or other tools to indicate market position and inform discussion of Internet traffic exchange; to provide a discussion of new tools, in the absence traditional infrastructure indicators, which might help to contribute to a better understanding of emerging patterns of electronic commerce such as indicators of hypertext links between OECD countries; to assist in building a better understanding of the importance of infrastructure indicators.