World leaders, technology leaders and campaigners are in Tunisia for a UN summit intended to help poorer nations benefit from the digital revolution.
About 10,000 participants are at expected at the three-day World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
The event is being eclipsed by a row over how the net is run and fears over freedom of expression in Tunisia.
Many developing nations say it is time control moved from the incumbent US body to a more accountable global one.
A UN-sponsored group has spent the last two years working on various proposals, without reaching agreement.
Last minute negotiations have been under way in Tunis, aimed at settling differences between the US and countries seeking a change.
The EU has been mediating between the Americans and a group of countries including China and Iran, which have been pushing for international control.
The Tunis summit is also a chance to see how far governments have gone in their pledges for an "inclusive information society" set out two years ago at a first summit in Geneva.
A Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action came out of Geneva as an attempt to encourage governments and stakeholders to close digital divides while tackling UN Millennium Development Goals, including the pledge to make the net accessible to all by 2015.
The voluntary fund has so far only raised $6.4m (£3.68m) in cash and pledges, so the UN will be hoping to encourage more contributions.
It plans to produce up to 15 million sub-$100 laptops within a year. Professor Negroponte will unveil the prototype at the summit.
There are other larger social justice issues to be tackled, such as how to ensure freedom of expression and information for everyone on the net, an issue which bloggers will be watching closely.
Ideas like the sub-$100 laptop for all will be showcased
Many fear real interrogation of these issues will be sidelined by political pressure and arguments over net governance, which many believe will result in no firm resolution.
Already, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are questioning the wisdom of holding the summit in Tunisia, a country which has a tight rein on the media.
Although freedom of opinion and expression is guaranteed by the Tunisian constitution, the government closely controls the press and broadcasting.
Some NGOs have found it difficult to get accreditation for WSIS. A separate summit, called the Citizen's Summit on the Information Society, is taking place at the same time for many groups who cannot attend WSIS.
The key debate on net governance centres around whether governments should have more of a role in net governance.
Many outside the US argue that no one country should have authority over something that now plays such a key role in the global economy.
A private, not-for-profit group, formed by the US Department of Commerce, called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), currently supervises the net's infrastructure.
Its oversees domain name and addressing systems, such as country domain suffixes, and manages how net browsers and e-mail programs direct traffic.
Developing nations want the net and its domains shared more equally, so that everyone can benefit from the web's economic, political, social and cultural advantages.
The US is reluctant to relinquish its grip, arguing that UN proposals would shift regulation from private sector leadership, to government, top-down control.
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