NetMundial finally dies

A much-heralded effort to create a new international body for internet governance issues may finally be dead, with a plea for a group to take over the only thing it produced.

The NetMundial Solutions Map cost a reported $200,000 to build and lists different internet governance efforts under specific categories. Now that the money has dried up, the company that built it – GovLab – wants someone else to take it over.

An open call to take over the list recognizes that the new owners may want to rebrand the effort to avoid any connection with the boondoggle that saw the internet world boycott an effort by ICANN, the World Economic Forum and Brazil's CGI.br to take a lead role in future internet governance efforts.

In the end, the 18-month, $600,000 initiative managed only to fly a 23-member council around the world for a series of meetings about what it would eventually do. When its "mandate" ended in July this year, financial backing was pulled. New council elections were cancelled and a proposal to revive the effort never materialized. No one is likely to mourn its loss. ®