Even as governments tinker around with the contentious issues, postings on the Web have ranged between disgust to anger. Critics point out that the only reason the internet has witnessed explosive growth is due to the lack of regulations. Their argument hinges on the fact that protocols on the internet are open and non-proprietary.

However, there is no clear-cut consensus on the issues under scrutiny. An advance survey conducted by the French government revealed dichotomies and areas of concern.

The survey indicates that on issues like regulating audio-visual content on the internet, while a few governments have expressed their reservations, broadly, the report concludes that "regulation is not an urgent matter".

"The internet does not threaten traditional radio-TV at short- andmedium-term, in particular for technical reasons...also because a new media never replaces the preceding ones," the report says.

Representatives from the UK expressed doubts that "the penetration speed will be as fast as is predicted by certain enthusiasts. There are therefore reasons to hesitate before making decisions which could turn out to have been made too quickly."

On the other hand, there is Singapore which wants a moderate level of regulation. It has indicated that while no moves will be made to regulate either internet service providers (ISPs) or internet content providers (ICPs), "they are given a broad set of guidelines that provide a clear idea of what their responsibilities are."

The government has outlined "some broad markers of what the community regards as offensive and harmful to Singapore's racial and religious harmony and public morals. Interestingly though, there is broad consensus on what the future holds. Governments concede that as the internet gets sophisticated and the numberof service providers increase, regulation will have to take a different dimension. The most interesting noises, however, have come from African countries. There is demand that richer countries subsidise the cost of using the internet for poorer countries.

The proposal is not new and earlier the UNDP had recommended that rich countries tax internet usage at about one US cent for every 100 e-mail messages sent. An expert group convened by the European Commission too had suggested a "bit tax" on online communications. The proposals was met with a great deal of criticism from various quarters which included the US Congress.

For African countries which want to popularise internet usage, the advantages are quite obvious. Sending a 40-page document from Madagascar to the Ivory Coast for instance, takes five days and costs $75. On e-mail however, it can be done in minutes at less than $0.20.

However, the report points out, the internet today, in all cases, is clearly dominated by a few countries from the North.It remains mainly an American media which is English speaking and almost totally excludes the southern countries and whole sections of Eastern Europe.

Of 159 million internet users in the world only 1.2 million are from Africa with 1 million concentrated in South Africa alone. Therefore, almost half the summit will be devoted to solutions that allow the internet to make forays into the most under developed regions of the world. The report says, "internet development should allow a better circulation of scientific and intellectual knowledge, which is a common property of humanity, between North and South."