The Public Good of Internet Usage and its Social Impact: A Business Ethics Approach

Public goods are indispensable for producing value in an economy and their usage is part of resource consumption in by any business. Of the two types of public goods, natural ones and social ones, it has mainly been the natural resources, which caught the attention of politicians, academics and business alike. And it is only the natural public goods like, e.g., air and water, for which attempts have been made to develop monetary valuation. This is changing as the Internet gets into focus. The various concerns taken up increasingly by policy makers on many issues of the Internet lead to a discussion that is increasingly questioning whether Internet provision really is a public good, if it really is for free, how it can be governed, whether Internet provision can be monetized and how this monetization changes the public goods character of the Internet. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss these topics. One outcome that is sought is to define the societal mandate of the parties involved, which would be to create private economic gain and public welfare. This social mandate must encompass the topic of business accountability − otherwise there will be no social effect from including as many users in Internet access as possible or feasible. Developing a society that is inclusive would be one major objective of conducting stakeholder relations in an ethical manner.