[bestbits] Re: [governance] Sacrificing the ICANN Will Not Be Enough for the US to Restore Its Internet Ethics

[William Drake]

Hi

On Nov 13, 2013, at 10:48 AM, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:

> On December 6, in Bern, a forum will gather a group of Swiss authorities and US stakeholders such as Internet Society and ICANN representatives. They will talk about the "Institutionalization of Global Internet Governance, Multistakeholderism, Multilateralism and Beyond". Frédéric Riehl, vice-director of the Swiss Federal Office of Communications will explain the new positioning of Switzerland in the Internet Governance landscape. The participants will also assess the multilateral model such as the ones from ITU, WTO and WIPO, during a debate moderated by Tarek Kamel, senior advisor to the ICANN President for governmental engagement. Probably the best person to do so if one considers the objective of the meeting. Everything seems to go in the right direction for the new ICANN that might join soon the Internet Society, already headquartered in Geneva.

Without commenting on the rest of this tiresome tirade, as the co-organizer of the above mentioned conference I’d like to correct and update its characterization.  It is not "a debate” involving Swiss authorities and US stakeholders (bit of a slight to ISOC and ICANN participants from around the world, but whatever), and the "objectives of the meeting” are neither nefarious nor programmatic.  It is an academic research conference, sponsored by the Swiss Network of International Studies (SNIS) and hosted by the World Trade Institute of the University of Bern.  The speakers (many of them IGC members) will be presenting draft memos that will subsequently grow into chapters for an edited book we'll publish late next year.  4 of the 5 panel moderators will be non-academics in order to help us broaden the discussion and take on board current issues of interest to practitioners in the field.  One of these moderators will be Theresa Swinehart, Senior Advisor to the President on Strategy , ICANN, who is replacing Tarek.

Anyone who has the interest and ability to be in Bern on 6-7 December is welcome to attend; registration is via the website, http://www.snis.ch/node/8146.  Unfortunately, SNIS does not do remote participation.

Best,

Bill

**********************************************************
William J. Drake
International Fellow & Lecturer
  Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ
  University of Zurich, Switzerland
Chair, Noncommercial Users Constituency, 
  ICANN, www.ncuc.org
william.drake at uzh.ch (w), wjdrake at gmail.com (h),
  www.williamdrake.org
***********************************************************

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