[bestbits] [governance] Blogpost: Alternative "Best Practices" for the A4AI (to be renamed Alliance for an Accessible Internet)

[Nick Ashton-Hart]

Dear Michael,

May I suggest that in the first instance, before proposing to rewrite A4Ai’s entire mission and purpose, you and those interested could have a conversation with them about your concerns?

I suspect that will get a better reception from presenting them with a redraft completely out of the blue, without having any dialogue.

Regards, Nick

> On 26 Mar 2016, at 23:49, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> My original blogpost <https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/a4ai-who-could-oppose-a-more-affordable-internet-the-alliance-for-an-affordable-internet-a4ai-and-the-neo-liberal-stealth-campaign-to-control-the-internet-throughout-the-developing-world-and-make/> examining the “Policy and Regulatory Best Practices” of the Alliance for an Affordable Internet (A4AI’s)  <http://a4ai.org/best-practices/>has generated some considerable discussion including on the InternetPolicy elist sponsored by the Internet Society <http://www.internetsociety.org/> (ISOC).  In the course of that discussion a challenge was put forward by Bill Smith, a tech industry veteran, Board Member of ISOC and the “tech evangelist” for PayPal as follows (taken from a post to the InternetPolicy elist (Fri 2016-03-25 9:31 AM)
> What is lacking in the discussion against A4AI, is a well-articulated alternative. Some bits and pieces may appear but they suffer from the same deficiencies attributed to A4AI’s principles, best practices, and policy positions – they are offered as fact with no substantiation.
> A4AI has what I consider a set of easily understandable principles, best practices, and policy positions. I suspect that when applied in practice, they will be effective in many circumstances. They may not be appropriate in all. (Think globally act locally.)
> What I haven’t seen are a similar set of principles, best practices, and policy positions from the non-neoliberal corner. Perhaps such a set could be presented to this list for consideration and debate.
> This below is my response to this challenge (I have added additional comments by Brandt Dainow also a contributor to the InternetPolicy elist):
> https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/alternative-best-practices-for-the-a4ai-to-be-renamed-alliance-for-an-accessible-internet/ <https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/alternative-best-practices-for-the-a4ai-to-be-renamed-alliance-for-an-accessible-internet/>
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/zhejpvh <http://tinyurl.com/zhejpvh>
> 
> M
> 
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