[governance] Why do you associate the tech community with private sector ?

[Ronda Hauben]

"Forms grow out of principles and operate to continue the principles they 
grow from" Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

I agree that putting the technical community into the business category 
shows some of the problem of what is being created with this ahistorical
three sector set of categories that have been created to impose on the
Internet and its future.

This brings into the structure the vested interests of corporate entities
who are protecting their own interests, rather than trying to determine 
the long term public interests.

And it leaves out the research scientific and technical community, lumping 
them under some other category. And importantly also left out are the 
online users who make their contributions and who historically have 
emerged to act as citizens of the online world, as netizens.


  On Sun, 6 Nov 2005, Hervé Le Crosnier wrote:

>
>
> Vittorio Bertola a écrit :
>> * national governments, including intergovernmental organizations;
>> * the private sector, including the technical community;
>> * civil society, including the community of individual Internet
>> users, non-profit organizations and the academic community."
>
> 	Hello,
>
> 	In many of recent mails on this list we find this three
> 	points list.
>
> 	Why do the technical community is not in the civil
> 	society part ?
>
> 	Most of the founding techniques of the internet came from
> 	universities, from the free software community. The
> 	motto of IETF ("rough consensus and running code") is clear
> 	enough to say they act as "netizens", and not as
> 	supporting any commercial purpose.

Yes  - this has been an important part of the Internet's development
which is now being swamped in the new models being created to impose
the old world on the Internet, rather than to learn from the new world
of the Internet.

First ICANN was one of these old world models, and now creating this
entity that is imposing "vested interests" on the Internet and its
development rather than protecting the Internet from the vested interests.
The idea of "multistakeholder" is the notion of who has a "vested" 
interest should be able to have that vested interest protected rather 
than having the Internet's development shielded from these interests.

>
]
> 	There is commercial use of the internet, and even of some
> 	tech protocols. But it's a side effect of the real
> 	openess of the internet. To put the tech community
> 	into the private sector is going on the opposite of
> 	the way the most prominent of them are acting.

Yes. The public process of development of the Internet has created 
something that has a general nature and so is valuable for all. If 
corporate interests have their way they favor short term and proprietary 
purposes and solutions.


  > 	For example, the W3C is trying to avoid patents over
> 	any new protocol for the internet. It's not a private
> 	sector approach. It's a civil society one.
>
> 	The tech community don't want the internet to be a
> 	battleground for private companies. They think of it as a new
> 	global  infrastructure where gouvernements, private sector and
> 	civil society can find their own way to use, and to share
> 	information and knowledge.

Yes. This is a helpful perspective.


>
> 	To assimilate the tech community with the private sector
> 	seems to me as a great and confusing mistake.
>

Yes. There is an effort to change the principles that underly the 
Internet's development.

> Hervé Le Crosnier

Ronda

I commented on this when an article appeared in Foreign Affairs 
proposing this three tier form as the article falsified the origins and
history of the Internet. 
http://www.circleid.com/posts/the_internet_and_open_architecture_determining_how_to_replace_icann/

"During this period the Net's sovereignty was with these users or 
netizens. It was they who contributed the discussion and other content and 
software for the Net.s continuing development. A number of these users 
were in the technical community, but not all users or all in the technical 
community were netizens. During this period, there was protection by 
government for these netizens and their contributions to the Internet and 
Usenet.

Who are those who contribute to the Internet.s continued growth and 
development today? Who are those for whom the broader interest of the 
Internet is important and who can participate in making decisions which 
will reflect this broader interest? These are but some of the questions 
that can help to broaden the needed public discussion to determine a new 
management structure for the Internet."

-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
governance mailing list
governance at lists.cpsr.org
https://ssl.cpsr.org/mailman/listinfo/governance