Affiliations: California State University, Sacramento, CA, 7392 Palm Ave, Sebastopol, CA, 95472, USA. Tel/Fax: +1 707 824 9747; E-mail: [email protected]
Note: [*] An earlier e-version of this paper was published in Informing Science: The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline 3(3) 2000, to be found at <http://informingscience.com>. The author thanks the publisher for permission to use this material.
Abstract: Every day, a new problem attributable to the World Wide Web's lack of formal structure and/or organization is made public. What arguably could be presented as one of its main strengths, is rapidly turning out to be one of its most flagrant weaknesses. The intent of this article is to show that the World Wide Web's insistence in remaining free from outside regulation and interference may be counter-productive. The World Wide Web (also known as the Internet and/or Cyberspace) is growing by leaps and bounds. It is entering uncharted territory. While doing so, it must recognize that trampling at will on existing legal and ethical societal standards will impair its credibility and usefulness. It should be willing to accept the benefits of mild regulation and outside control, against the risks of unfettered freedom. It is to balance these benefits and risks that a more formal organization which could take the form of a metacontrol system – to be explained – coupled with self-regulation, is proposed. The so-called metasystem system would be responsible for preventing some of cyberspace's illegal and unethical emerging situations from ever taking place. Evidently, these unanticipated situations are occurring due to the web's lack of maturity. They will grow in number and severity unless they are kept in check. Activities, such as the denial-of-service (DoS) attacks may well be illicit. Others, like the question of establishing a world-wide democratic board to administer the Internet's address system is so new, that there are no technical, legal or political precedents to ensure that its design will succeed. What is needed is a formal, over-arching control system, i.e., a ‘metasystem’, that will arbitrate over controversies, decide on the legality of new policies and, in general, act as a metalevel controller over the activities of the virtual community called Cyberspace. The problem can be defined in terms of control theory. Cyberspace lacks a metacontroller that can be used to resolve the many problems that arise when a new organizational configuration such as the Internet is created, and when questions surface about the extent that new activities interfere with individual, or corporate freedom(s).
Keywords: World Wide Web, as an organization, control, disruptive activities, hacker attacks and viruses, defense against, metasystem control, regulation vs. freedom, imperatives of control
