<div>Greetings,</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I just want to say thanks also, and am skimming, and appreciate Dan's selections here as advance organizers.</div>
<div>Thank you much Wolfgang et al for putting this together, it is a true boon.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Best wishes, LDMF.</div>
<div>Dr. Linda D. Misek-Falkloff</div>
<div>*Respectful Interfaces*. (Programme of The Communications Coordination Committee for the U.N.).<br><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 12/7/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Dan Krimm</b> <<a href="mailto:dan@musicunbound.com">dan@musicunbound.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">At 9:38 AM +0100 12/7/07, Kleinwächter, Wolfgang wrote:<br>>Our IGF Book is now online.<br>><br>>here is the URL
<br>><br>><a href="http://medienservice.land-der-ideen.de/MEDIA/65534,0.pdf">http://medienservice.land-der-ideen.de/MEDIA/65534,0.pdf</a><br><br><br>Thanks for this, I'm enjoying reading a few bits already.<br><br>
I think Bill Drake's chapter addresses a framework for action on some of<br>the issues we've been hitting our heads against recently. Nevertheless, I<br>have a question for Bill.<br><br>-----<br><br>Bill, given the codification in your conclusion:
<br><br>"Transparency, inclusive participation, and coordination, to the<br>extent practicable, ought to be regarded as comparatively anodyne<br>principles on which the international community can readily<br>agree. In fact, it already has. All that is needed now is to put
<br>in place a process to assess and promote their implementation."<br><br>Are you sure that the apparent agreement here was not based implicitly upon<br>an assumption by some that implementation might well be illusory? That is,
<br>some folks might be perfectly happy to give lip service to high-flying<br>moral principles as long as they don't have to actually do anything about<br>it on the ground when they get home.<br><br>We are quite familiar with that dynamic in politics in the US by now (it is
<br>common for legislation with high ideals to contain many compromises with<br>regard to implementation and budget appropriation that were necessary to<br>get political agreement, with the understanding that such provisions would
<br>systematically hamper the stated goals of the legislation -- it is well<br>understood in political circles that implementation is "where the rubber<br>hits the road" in public policy, and that there are opportunities to "have
<br>your cake (rhetorically) and eat it too (tangibly)"). I expect maybe<br>elsewhere this dynamic has also been seen from time to time. If so, the<br>rhetorical agreement may not be as tangibly broad-ranging as you assume,
<br>even in principle (which can itself diverge from politically acceptable<br>[i.e., vague] rhetoric).<br><br>As I was not part of either WSIS or WGIG (and not really IGF either, other<br>than seeing recent IGC discussions here and helping out with the IGC NomCom
<br>for Rio), I can't really attest firsthand to whether this agreement was<br>more than rhetorical, and actually a substantive, principled aspect of the<br>(political) values of the participants.<br><br>There may even be people who *believe* that they hold these principles, but
<br>when push comes to shove they have very narrow ideas about who has standing<br>to be included. This is the trickiest area to navigate, because it<br>involves people who think they are being inclusive when in fact they are
<br>being systematically restrictive. I do think that getting specific about<br>the definitions of these terms will help us define exactly what we are<br>talking about (i.e., it will illuminate more of the underlying political
<br>values and conceptual frameworks of those participating), which is<br>prerequisite to doing anything tangible about it, but in the process we<br>might discover that there is somewhat less agreement than originally<br>
imagined.<br><br>I would love to believe that your axiom here is true, but it is easy to<br>have doubts. If it is true, then of course it'd be fabulous for IGF to<br>take it up systematically moving forward. In fact, even if it is not true,
<br>IGF should still try, because in the process of addressing the details of<br>"transparency, inclusive participation, and coordination" (you've certainly<br>got *my* vote for that, and in the *broadest* way possible) any rhetorical
<br>posers will be exposed and publicly shamed.<br><br>Dan<br><br>PS -- I also must voice my explicit concurrence with Milton's chapter. Alx<br>likes to say that policy should be developed narrowly by focused<br>institutions addressing "specific problem domains" and it seems to me that
<br>Milton is in conceptual agreement here by suggesting that we actually name<br>those problems accurately and precisely in political terms, to the extent<br>that these problems extend beyond purely technical considerations to
<br>matters of general political import.<br><br>I went back and read Avri's chapter in the WGIG book recently, which was<br>helpful to me in understanding the culture clash here, and it seems clear<br>that the techie/politico terms of discourse are still "in flux" in terms of
<br>understanding one another. By way of personal disclosure, while I've been<br>involved with "online services" from an end-user application and content<br>production standpoint since 1981, I'm really (and unapologetically) coming
<br>to the realm of IG primarily from a public policy/political stance. And of<br>course, I am also (and equally unapologetically) an *advocate* in a<br>political sense (as, underneath it all, I believe we all are).<br>____________________________________________________________
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<br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Linda D. Misek-Falkoff, Ph.D., J.D.<br>N.B.: This is an individual and not an organizational post unless otherwise stated or implied. <br>For I.D. only here:<br>Coordination of Singular Organizations on Disability (IDC Steering),and director Persons Wiyth Pain Inl., for the Intl. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabiliyties..
<br>Persons With Pain International. National Disability Party, International Disability Caucus. <br>IDC-ICT Taskforce.<br>Respectful Interfaces* - Communications Coordination Committee For The United Nations; CCC/UN Board Member and Secretary; Chr., Online Committee..
<br>Vita Summary: <tbp>.<br>Other Affiliations on Request.