<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">Dear All --<BR>
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I'd like to say that I find Wolfgang's comments to be full of common sense.<BR>
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Previous discussions here on this theme seemed to me to be largely detached from reality (and dangerous from a freedom of expression standpoint).<BR>
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ICANN's structure is obviously flawed from a purely theoretical view of political philosophy. Unease with the connnection to a US government that has complicated problems in the world is quite understandable. Thankfully, that government has not complicated problems related to Internet governance. And dangers that it might do so are probably receding as the current US administration recedes.<BR>
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Every other proposal to date for the oversight of Internet governance seems to have insuperable practical drawbacks. The analogy seems to be Winnie Churchill's view of parliamentary democracy -- the worst system, except for all the others.<BR>
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One of the attractions of the Internet Governance Forum is its more or less amiable anarchy. Imagining its transformation into some sort of Internet oversight body strikes me not only as nightmarish but -- worse still -- as unmanageable.<BR>
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Universal bottom-up democracy seems chimeric. Bottom-up democracy works in relatively small territorial entities. It is hard to imagine a kind of world government based on that model. <BR>
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In any case, the "international community" (whatever that is) seems to be having a very hard time managing current outbreaks of traditional-style conflicts. Dealing with competing interests in a totally new environemt like the Internet is obviously beyond its current capacities. The existence of a place like the IGF to discuss how new oversight and conflict resolution mechanisms might possibly come about in the border-defying environment of the Internet is a positive situation.<BR>
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Meanwhile, I think that in a pragmatic spirit, we should stick with what has actually worked, rather than seek some ideal model that would inevitably create at least as many new conflicts amongst various interest groups as it is likely to resolve.<BR>
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Rony Koven<BR>
World Press Freedom Committee<BR>
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PS My comments are personal. The organizational reference is for purposes of identification.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"></FONT><BR><BR><BR>**************<BR>Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.<BR> (http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp00300000002548)</HTML>