[governance] Cerf and Kahn receive the US highest civil award

[Veni Markovski]

I agree with you, Bertrand.
Please, keep in mind that in December 1997, President Clinton 
presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his 
partner, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. 
Kahn and Cerf were named the recipients of the ACM Alan M. Turing 
award in 2004 for their work on the Internet protocols. The Turing 
award is sometimes called the "Nobel Prize of Computer Science."

So, basically, I don't see political context here. I see rather a 
recognition what he and Bob Kahn did, but also a number of people 
contributed to. It's also a sign that the Internet is helping not 
only the participants at the WSIS, but many more to have access to 
information, freedom of speech, etc., etc.

We must stop taking care of what's happening somewhere in the world, 
and put into its context everything that happens. Today, we may say, 
it's because of WSIS. Tomorrow it will be because of post-WSIS. 
Yesterday, it would have been because of the PrepCom. What was the 
reason for the 2004 ACM award? Or for the 1997 Medal?

The WSIS is not the most important event in the world, so that we 
should not believe all things relate to it.

best,
veni

At 18:36 09-11-05  +0100, Bertrand de La Chapelle wrote:
>Dear all,
>
>Please let's not start a new thread that can gon on for a long time 
>and will only distract everyone at a critical moment :-)
>
>Just two points :
>1) such an award is highly deserved and long overdue
>2) one cannot fail to notice the particular timing of this honor
>
>I would have personnally preferred - in rdue espect for the value of 
>what those two people created - that it were given to them earlier 
>and not in a context that brings unnecessary political overtones to 
>it. But it is not their fault. (sorry for my english that probably 
>does not reflect all the nuances I would like to put here, but you 
>probably all see my point).
>
>Best
>
>Bertrand
>
>
>On 11/9/05, Veni Markovski <<mailto:veni at veni.com>veni at veni.com> wrote:
>At 11:14 09-11-05  -0500, Joe Baptista wrote:
> >What is especially interesting is Cerf and Kahn getting this.  But
> >claiming "Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn been at the forefront of a digital
> >revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and
> >entertainment" is a bit off.
>
>What is not a "bit off" but a lot off the normal behaviour here is
>actually the thing you wrote about Vint and Bob.
>After all, if it wasn't for them, you would have not been able to
>write such accusations.
>
>I wouldn't go into agrument about your ICANN-related statement, but
>one observation, as someone from a developing country: as long as
>there are such statements, no wonder the US government will continue
>to say, "better keep ICANN under our supervision".
>
>veni
>
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