Professor Geist’s regular Toronto Star Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, HTML backup article, homepage version) features coverage of the results of a global study jointly conducted by the ITU and myself on the role of national governments and their national domains. The study, which covered 56 countries from every global region and a broad cross-section of developed and developing countries, finds that virtually every government that responded to the survey either manages, retains direct control, or is contemplating formalizing its relationship with its ccTLD. The column concludes that the debate at next week’s World Summit on the Information Society is not whether governments should be involved in Internet governance, but rather how they will be involved in the issue.