<div dir="ltr">Thank you Parminder.<br><br>This is one of the most balanced pieces I have read about the WCIT ever since the debate erupted earlier this year. Even if the outcomes do not go in favor of the MS approach, I believe it will go a long way before it is fully implemented (lots of lobbying and conspiracy theories will go along the lines).<br>
<br>Fahd<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 2:21 PM, parminder <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net" target="_blank">parminder@itforchange.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<a href="http://www.buddeblog.com.au/frompaulsdesk/the-real-work-starts-after-wcit12/" target="_blank">http://www.buddeblog.com.au/frompaulsdesk/the-real-work-starts-after-wcit12/</a><br>
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Interesting blog on WCIT, and I agree.....<br>
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The real work comes afterwards, and much of what happens at the
WCIT should set up the context of, what the authors puts as, and I
quote...<br>
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<blockquote>
<p style="text-align:justify">Like it or not, this debate has
brought a large number of important issues to the fore and
they will need to be confronted. What the WCIT has to do
upfront is untangle the various issues and clearly separate
them from each other. The next step will then be to clearly
define what can be solved on a national level and what needs
to be addressed internationally – and, if there are issues
that need international attention, who are the best parties to
address those issues.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">The most important issue at the
WCIT will be how the international community will manage the
current debate so as to move towards a manageable future.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">Most likely what this will mean
is that the various international stakeholders will have to
create a (new) platform that can be used to address these
issues, and existing internet bodies such as ICANN, ISOC and
IGF, as well as the UN and some of its organisations such as
the ITU and others of course, will all need to be part of
this.</p>
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The full blog is below.....<br>
<h2 style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS','Lucida Grande',Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:bold;font-size:1.6em;color:rgb(51,51,51);text-decoration:none;margin:30px 0px 0px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">
<a href="http://www.buddeblog.com.au/frompaulsdesk/the-real-work-starts-after-wcit12/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: The real work starts
after WCIT12" style="color:rgb(51,51,51);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">The real work starts after WCIT12</a></h2>
<div style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:'Lucida Grande',Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:justify;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">
<p style="text-align:justify">The really important part of
the World Conference on IT (WCIT) is not the internet battles
that have caught the interest of the press – it is what will
happen after the conference has ended.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">Membership of WCIT is on a
per-country basis and currently 193 countries will be
participating in this international event. Each country is
free to make up its own delegation and these delegations can
therefore represent a large variety of social, economic,
business, legal, technical and other interests – as large and
as wide as each country decides its delegation will be. The
responsibility for organising the WCIT rests with the ITU,
which is the oldest UN organisation (1865).</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">The current media frenzy about
the internet, and the false rumours that the UN or any other
organisation is going to take over its governance is just that
– a media beat-up.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">As in any international
meeting, countries are welcome to bring their plans,
proposals, opinions and views to the conference and to take
the opportunity to present these to the international
audience. However proposals from the USA, or Russia, or China,
or the European countries, or the Arab countries are not
automatically accepted simply because they are presented at
the conference. That is not the case in any international
conference – and certainly not at the WCIT, which has a
reputation for consensus-building.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">The media frenzy seems to be
based on the incorrect assumption that any of the proposals
that have been circulated or rumoured could be, or even will
be, accepted. It is true that some of these proposals and
rumours contain elements that will be unacceptable to other
members of the international communities, and vested interests
involved in the debate have used the well-known FUD strategy
(spread fear, uncertainty and doubt) to fuel the media frenzy.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">On the positive side, the
interest in WCIT has now moved well beyond the traditional ICT
industry. It has gained an enormous amount of attention and
has brought the internet governance issue to the notice of
mainstream society. This, of course, is a positive development
and it also indicates how important the internet has become
for everybody, with non-technical people starting to take a
serious interest in its future.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">One of the problems of the
internet has been that while it has been growing into that
wider context the governing bodies have not kept up with the
growth of these wider interests and concerns, and there is now
a range of social and economic issues, as well as the
technical issues that need to be addressed. In the current
debate, however, all these issues have been thrown into one
pool.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">Like it or not, this debate has
brought a large number of important issues to the fore and
they will need to be confronted. What the WCIT has to do
upfront is untangle the various issues and clearly separate
them from each other. The next step will then be to clearly
define what can be solved on a national level and what needs
to be addressed internationally – and, if there are issues
that need international attention, who are the best parties to
address those issues.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">The most important issue at the
WCIT will be how the international community will manage the
current debate so as to move towards a manageable future.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">Most likely what this will mean
is that the various international stakeholders will have to
create a (new) platform that can be used to address these
issues, and existing internet bodies such as ICANN, ISOC and
IGF, as well as the UN and some of its organisations such as
the ITU and others of course, will all need to be part of
this.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">The internet is there for all.
It is an enormous social and economic enabler and should be
used to advance our global society. It clearly has the
potential to do this and it is the responsibility of all
involved to make that happen. WCIT 12 has the enormous
opportunity, as a representation of global society, to play a
leadership role in guiding the future of the internet for the
benefit of all.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">The new platform that should be
the result of this needs to be truly international,
independent; and it needs to be well-funded, so that it can
properly address the issues at hand.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">It is, therefore, most unlikely
that – apart from some of the purely technical matters – any
of the more contentious issues that are being addressed in the
press will be solved at WCIT. Nor should that be the case,
because WCIT is probably the wrong place to address these
issues. Nevertheless WCIT can be the catalyst and the
facilitator to kick-start the process.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify">Paul Budde</p>
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