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<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">There is a good amount of
truth in your analysis Siva, but I do not understand that when you so
roundly criticize ITU for its business association why is that ICANN/
ISOC/ ITEF/ RIRs etc escape your notice on similar counts. Parminder </font><br>
<br>
Sivasubramanian Muthusamy wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:fecfce261002161130n73644035u255a0c5399f90134@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">Hello Katiza<br>
<br>
ITU is an anomaly that deviates from the ancient wisdom behind the
dictum that "a nation's capital should be situated as farther away from
the sea shore as possible": (merchants congregate near the sea; if the
capital is close to the sea, merchants would have proximity to the
members of the Government, so there is greater likelihood of the
merchants corrupting the politicians). Telecom corporations have the
rare advantage of being seated alongside Government at the ITU. This
anomalous position makes it possible for the telecoms to exercise an
undue influence on governments, unnoticed by the Governments.<br>
<br>
The ITU was established because telegraphic communication needed to be
standardized for interoperability across continents. ITU established
standards for telegraphic and phone communication.<br>
<br>
Governments chose to be part of the ITU when Governments owned telecom
corporations. Over time, most Governments have withdrawn their stakes
in their telecommunication corporations, but haven't ceased to be a
part of this business cartel. The result is that we are now left with a
business-government nexus, of which unwittingly Governments are a part.<br>
<br>
This status is a unique status, not conferred upon the business unions
of any other industry. ITU has been in a position to influence national
and global policies related to all communication. ITU's core concern is
that it should govern and control all business of communication. The
ITU sets policies and rules in all communication: Telegraphs,
telephones, mobile phones and it also manages the RF spectrum and
satellite communications with the exception of the Internet.<br>
<br>
ITU's idea of an Internet was a networking solution provided by telecom
companies on a commercial business model. ITU tried to take charge of
the Internet in the early days of Internet. This did not happen as the
Internet took shape as a free and open medium. The Internet evolved to
be way beyond the purview of the ITU and it shape as a world on its own.<br>
<br>
In its recent attempts to impose itself in Internet Governance, it
couldn't succeed because the mutli-stakeholder approach has rendered
the Civil Society as a powerful force in any policy debate (if not
decision) related to the Internet.<br>
<br>
This must have made the ITU very uncomfortable and as an organization
with its anachronistic status as a UN Agency, the ITU The Internet
threatened the business models of telecom companies as technologies
such as email, VOIP began to be adopted worldwide. The ITU also found a
new breed of phone companies like Skype that didn't obey the ITU rules
becoming phenomenally successful and an emerging threat to phone
company revenues.<br>
<br>
The freedom of the Internet is because of the open architecture of the
Internet and due to such principles as the end to end principle, all of
which could be easily redefined if the task of Internet architecture
and Internet standards comes under the ITU umbrella. So the ITU tried
to interject itself in the Internet Standards process. The Critical
Internet Resources could be brought under the ITU umbrella by taking
over a vulnerable corporation called ICANN. That could ensure a
technical dominance of the Internet by the ITU. But for overall
control, ITU needs to take over Internet Governance with the argument
that easily fools at least a few policy makers: that the ITU is a well
organized, 145 year old organization that has 191 national governments
as its members. It attempts to derive a position in policy making
(which is otherwise in the realm of Governments) by interjecting itself
in the policy arena as a UN Agency, while it is in reality a business
union.<br>
<br>
The ITU organizes the World Telecommunication Policy Forum in an
attempt to position itself / retain its position in the policy arena.
The ITU asserts its position in policy making in subtle ways. For
instance, at the IGF in Sharm el Sheikh, an ITU representative said "
We have no intention whatsoever to do the business of the ICANN, what
the ICANN is doing best...everybody doesn't want the ICANN to do what
is the mandate of the ITU of policy-making, public-policy issues and so
on”<br>
<br>
That was subtle. The ITU representative had managed to assert that
policy making is ITU's birthright and that the ITU has a legitimate and
unequaled role in policy making. This inappropriate statement was
somehow allowed to slip in without a challenge at the IGF.<br>
<br>
At Egypt, ITU's representatives raised questions about IPv6 allocation
system, in an attempt to bring the ITU into the function of allocation
of IP addresses. This was mild compared to a blatant speech by the
Secretary General at ICANN Cairo, which almost amounted to a bid to
take over ICANN.<br>
<br>
ITU's constant attempts to gain a "controlling interest" in Internet
Governance is resisted by the Internet Community. This is what causes
the 'tensions'.<br>
<br>
Sivasubramanian Muthusamy<br>
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<div>
<div class="gmail_quote"><font style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"
size="2"><br style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;">
</font>On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 10:21 PM, Katitza Rodriguez <span
dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:katitza@datos-personales.org" target="_blank">katitza@datos-personales.org</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Greetings:<br>
<br>
Can someone explain me the ITU-IGF tension? I do not follow ITU.<br>
<br>
Thanks.
<div>
<div><br>
<br>
<br>
On Jan 21, 2010, at 11:42 AM, Yehuda Katz wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
My constructive dissection:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
None of these suggestions would fundamentally alter the IGF as an
institution;<br>
</blockquote>
for example, we are content that it remain formally convened by the UN<br>
Secretary General, with an independent budget and a Secretariat under
contract<br>
with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(UNDESA). We<br>
do not see any benefit to the IGF in moving underneath a different UN
body.<br>
<br>
I take it that: "... We do not see any benefit to the IGF in moving
underneath<br>
a different UN body. ..." addresses the ITU's position.<br>
Myself, I see no insult in addressing the ITU's position more directly.
(Spit<br>
it out)<br>
<br>
Add something like this: And it is genraly felt that if the IGF is to be<br>
subsumed by the ITU, then IGC members would prefer the IGF remain
independent<br>
of the UN umbrella.<br>
<br>
I am suggesting to leave open 'The-Thought' of an Independent IGF for
serval<br>
reasons,<br>
1. There may be Other UN Branches (Other than the ITU) that want to
hose the<br>
IGF<br>
2. It may be that the IGF can be Independent and 'First among Equals'
(among<br>
all the UN Branches) in respect to Internet Policy, underwritten by the
MDG and<br>
WSIS Declarations.<br>
3. if the IGF is in fact slated to conclude, the statement establishes
the<br>
IGC's commitment to the IGF's ongoing Independence.<br>
...<br>
Don't be Shy, the Chair at the ITU certainly is not. Give them (Dese
& Markus)<br>
the fuel to fight.<br>
I don't feel you'll insult anyone by being Frank & Direct, in fact
now is the<br>
time to do just that, the delicate 'Modalities' as Bertrand de La
Chapelle puts<br>
it can come later.<br>
<br>
Else where in your statement, you should add something a-kin too
"Piercing the<br>
corporate Veil", that is make reference to the 'Invisibility' of the UN<br>
Umbrella Insider negotiations (UN inside modalities) regarding the<br>
determination of the IGF's composition, that should be made real-time
and<br>
transparent to All.<br>
<br>
I use the 'Piercing the corporate Veil' analogy because I feel They (the<br>
UNSG/UNDESA/ITU/IGF Chairs) have broken their contract with US, in
regards to<br>
Transparency of the final negotiations. Last Year's
transactions/actions were<br>
evidence of the fact.<br>
---<br>
<br>
* Piercing the corporate Veil<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piercing_the_corporate_veil"
target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piercing_the_corporate_veil</a><br>
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