[governance] New dot com agreement changes USG-ICANN relationship

[Danny Butt]

Hi Jeanette/all

I find it interesting that internet culture is so hostile to the idea  
of government that even mild recognition quickly becomes  
"glorification" :7. I have no great love for intergovernmental  
systems, but they do some things relatively well, or at least better  
than existing alternatives. Geographical diversity and due process  
would be high on my list.

While I think that "transparency" in the development sector is highly  
overrated (and often a tool to enable ICT-rich organisations to get  
contracts where "publishing on the internet" is equated with  
transparency), I agree it is an important component of  
accountability. However, it's far from the only component, or even  
the most important.

My point is that what constitutes "performance" will be assessed  
differently by different people, and there is a rather large  
geopolitical/socio-cultural imbalance in positive evaluations of  
existing Internet Governance entities. Civil Society's stand on that  
imbalance will, in my opinion, be critical to its long-term voice in  
IG arrangements.

Or to put it more simply, if CS buys the line that everything is fine  
as long as it gets seats at the table, then it may soon find itself  
in an expensive, empty restaurant with bad food and worse company,  
while the masses eat elsewhere.

Regards,

Danny


On 07/12/2006, at 7:53 AM, Jeanette Hofmann wrote:

> On further reflection, we should not glorify intergovernmental  
> processes and institutions. Even if the ITU is more inclusive as  
> far as participation of governments is concerned, we don't know  
> much about balances of powers between governments. And even if  
> there are formal mechanisms of accountability, we don't know  
> whether they are effective.
>
> ICANN is much more transparent than any intergovernmental  
> organization. This is why we can observe its shortcomings on a  
> regular basis. I wouldn't be able to say if closed  
> intergovernmental organizations such as the ITU violate or stretch  
> their own rules more or less than ICANN. What seems safe to say is  
> trust in an organization requires better performance.

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