[governance] Re: [bestbits] Three NETmundial submissions launched for endorsement at bestbits.net

[michael gurstein]

Ah. the "if I ruled the world" challenge. yes, flattering but ultimately
inconsequential. I don't (thank god) rule the world. So my off the cuff
solutions aren't worth all that much.

 

I did a major project in sub-Saharan Africa last year with Mwaki among
others addressing more or less this very question. and the answer was. it's
complicated.

 

It involved strengthening broad structures of governance, putting technology
infrastructures into (the right) place(s), training, developing appropriate
mechanisms for consultation/decision making. And yes the answer was
multi-stakeholder . but. not multistakeholderist. multi-stakeholder within a
context which could accommodate and contain and make multi-stakeholder
consultation and participation meaningful and useful for all concerned
including to strengthen democratic governance and particularly figuring out
how to get governmental structures to adapt and respond. To some degree this
would be done in parallel to existing democratic processes but interwoven
with them to use the democracy to reinforce the consultations and the
consultations to deepen and reinforce the democracy.

 

Sorry if this is tedious and not glib enough for you but given world enough
and time my guess is that this kind of thing could work as well in
Ouagadougou as in downtown Tehran. not sure about Hackney/Georgetown but it
seems to work well enough in Teeside and if we can get these things to work
in Ouga and Tehran and Teeside - well "first we take Manhattan and then we
take Berlin.. *

 

(And BTW it's not me who is agitating to jettison 300 or so years of
democracy in favour of some pig in a poke hatched in some US think tank and
being foisted on the world by a self-interested cabal of the US State
Department, Google,  various other OECD private corps, and certain selected
"civil society" organizations including your own it would appear**

 

*Leonard Cohen..
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/First-We-Take-Manhattan-lyrics-Leonar
d-Cohen/926CCB64249F308848256AF00028CB85

 

**TOWARD A SINGLE GLOBAL DIGITAL ECONOMY
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/upload/Toward_a_Si
ngle_Global_Digital_Economy_Aspen_IDEA_Project_0.pdf

 

 

M

 

From: Andrew Puddephatt [mailto:Andrew at gp-digital.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2014 7:08 PM
To: michael gurstein; governance at lists.igcaucus.org; 'Jeremy Malcolm';
'parminder'
Cc: bestbits at lists.bestbits.net
Subject: Re: [governance] Re: [bestbits] Three NETmundial submissions
launched for endorsement at bestbits.net

 

I'm sorry Mike - you are not answering the question.  If you mean by
multi-lateralism, negotiations about a global environment conducted by
states I want to know - not why you think multi-stakeholderism is crap -
which you have discussed with all of us at great and increasingly tedious
length - but what js your democratic alternative that allows my interests -
or any other citizens to be represented in global negotiations?

 

Those you disagree with are looking for ways to ensure a broader range of
voices - including states of course as the most powerful actors- in the
governance debate.

 

Put your option up for discussion and let's see how democratic that is to
the resident of downtown Tehran (or even Hackney where I live)

 

From: michael gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, 6 March 2014 02:57
To: andrew Puddephatt <andrew at gp-digital.org>,
"governance at lists.igcaucus.org" <governance at lists.igcaucus.org>, Jeremy
Malcolm <Jeremy at Malcolm.id.au>, "parminder at itforchange.net"
<parminder at itforchange.net>
Cc: "<bestbits at lists. net <mailto:bestbits at lists.%20net> >"
<bestbits at lists.bestbits.net>
Subject: RE: [governance] Re: [bestbits] Three NETmundial submissions
launched for endorsement at bestbits.net

 

Andrew (and Suresh.

 

Those are quite legitimate points/questions and very much worthy of serious
discussion and debate. 

 

However, evoking (over and over and over.) the undefined, undescribed,
undetailed multistakeholderist mantra doesn't get us any closer. 

 

The continuous shapeshifting by the proponents of the MS meme whenever they
are challenged to get real --well this isn't quite "MSism", it isn't true
MSism, it will be better next time MSism, doesn't do anyone a service
(except the "wizards" behind the curtains).