Carlos,<br><br>Sorry for the comparison with Brazil :-)) Was just to verify Dick Beaird's statement. France anyway is far below and not concerned in that numbers race.<br><br>Of course it is NOT a country ;-)<br><br>B.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">2009/4/30 Carlos Afonso <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ca@rits.org.br">ca@rits.org.br</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Fine, but let us remind ourselves that it is *not* a country ;)<br><font color="#888888">
<br>
--c.a.</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
Bertrand de La Chapelle wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Thanks Wolfgang for pointing us to this article.<br>
<br>
As a matter of fact, the US representative in the recent ITU World Telecom<br>
Policy Forum in Lisbon has used himself the analogy that Jonathan raises by<br>
saying explicitly : "if Facebook were a country, it would be the fifth<br>
largest". If Facebook is really 200 million registered users, it has indeed<br>
passed Brazil in the list of countries ranked by population. (see :<br>
<a href="http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl" target="_blank">http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl</a>)<br>
<br>
Jonathan's points make sense and I have raised them in the IGF, in<br>
particular in Hyderabad, to highlight the fact that such companies "terms of<br>
service" are not traditional terms of service but become the law of the<br>
space for most users.<br>
<br>
The two questions that this brings are :<br>
- *What is the governance of such social networks* : the processes by which<br>
such terms of service are "elaborated and applied" (cf. the definition of<br>
Internet Governance), as they represent "principles, norms, decision-making<br>
procedures and programs" - and in this respect, Facebook is clearly taking<br>
unprecedented initiatives<br>
- *What relation with the web of national laws* : the articulation between<br>
those "company governance regimes" and the various national laws and legal<br>
jurisdictions that should apply.<br>
<br>
The Internet has evolved form the physical IP-based network used mostly for<br>
email and file transfer into the http/html-based World Wide Web used to<br>
access information. It is clearly reaching a third stage with social<br>
networking applications, creating a sort of SocioNet, that is looking for<br>
its appropriate governance protocols.<br>
<br>
This is the reason why, on behalf of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet<br>
Rights and Principles, I have suggested a workshop theme for the next IGF,<br>
under the title : "The Governance of Social Media", precisely to address<br>
this type of issues. I hope it will be retained.<br>
<br>
Best<br>
<br>
Bertrand<br>
<br>
<br>
2009/4/29 "Kleinwächter, Wolfgang" <<br>
<a href="mailto:wolfgang.kleinwaechter@medienkomm.uni-halle.de" target="_blank">wolfgang.kleinwaechter@medienkomm.uni-halle.de</a>><br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/node/47778/pdf" target="_blank">http://www.opendemocracy.net/node/47778/pdf</a><br>
<br>
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</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>____________________<br>Bertrand de La Chapelle<br>Délégué Spécial pour la Société de l'Information / Special Envoy for the Information Society<br>Ministère des Affaires Etrangères et Européennes/ French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs<br>
Tel : +33 (0)6 11 88 33 32<br><br>"Le plus beau métier des hommes, c'est d'unir les hommes" Antoine de Saint Exupéry<br>("there is no greater mission for humans than uniting humans")<br>