On the initiative of Messrs. Claude Birraux and Jean-Yves Le Déaut, respectively First Vice President and Vice President of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (OPECST), a public hearing was held on 8 December 2005 by the OPECST, a few days following the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis initiated by the UN, one of whose themes was the global governance of the Internet. The hearing brought together four categories of players – public authorities, scientific and technical organizations, businesses and Internet users – according to the principles established under the framework of the WSIS. Four series of speeches were presented during this day. The French and European positions, defended during the previous negotiations which had been held a few days earlier, were officially presented by Mr. Jean-Michel Hubert, official representative to the WSIS, and Mr. Peter Zangl, representing Mrs. Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for the Information Society and Media. The context of the debate on the world governance of the Internet is characterized by the Internet's "socio-technical" dimension, a rather nuanced assessment of its development, and both promising and menacing prospects for its evolution. The debate itself revealed a strong overlapping of technical and political, as well as national and international, elements, and of public and private initiatives. The success of this process requires a raising of public awareness, coordinated action at the European level, and the organization of a monitoring program gathering together public authorities (in particular, the Parliament), economic and scientific players, and Internet users.