[governance] Where are we going?

[Bertrand de La Chapelle]

Dear all,

As usual, Karl reframes an interesting question :

On 4/13/07, Karl Auerbach <karl at cavebear.com> wrote:
>
> ....
> There is an interesting sidelight to this, however, which is this: Is
> labeling http/web content a matter of internet governance?  Or should
> internet governance be limited to making it possible for people to label
> http/web content ?


I suggest both are Internet governance, at two different levels, in
accordance with the Tunis Internet Governance definition :

"Internet Governance is the development and application, by [all
stakeholders], in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms,
rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution
and use of the Internet."

According to this definition, at the very first level, you could consider
"making it possible to label" as the *development* of some principles,
norms, rules, decision-making procedures (like who does what...) and
programmes (like embedding metadata label reading in code) that shape the
use of the Internet; and your "actual labeling http/web content" as *the
application* of those principles, .... by the stakeholders, probably in
different responsibilities than in the development of the rules.

In general terms, governance frameworks have three major steps for
governance regimes :
- development (itself divided into agenda-setting and iterative drafting)
- adoption (can be by a sub-set of the community or all of it)
- application (itself divided into implementation and enforcement)

 The Tunis definition clearly covers the first one and the last one, with an
important missing point regarding adoption/validation. Interestingly enough
this points for example to the decision-making capacity (or not of the IGF)
and the validation of any consensus policy developed in Internet Governance
fora.

Karl also wrote :

So it's not that I'm in opposition, but rather that I really wonder how
> far from a technical foundation a matter of internet governance can go
> before it needs to drop the "internet" adjective?


I always have understood Internet Governance as covering both governance
"of" the Internet (the infrstructure) and "on" the Internet (its uses). This
corresponds to the distinction "shapes the Internet and its uses" in the
Tunis definition. And this was a major evolution brought by the WSIS. People
with a long personal history in the Internet Community sometimes resent this
extension of a word they used to associate with strictly technical matters
(the DNS management and ICANN in particular). A bit like a french nobleman
after the revolution that would still consider a Parliament a judiciary body
instead of the new acception of the term as a representative chamber.

But beyond this, one can also note that an Internet Governance associating
all stakeholders can only exist because of the Internet itself (through
online communication and collaboration tools). It is therefore also an
"Internet-enabled governance" and this new governance is - or should be - in
the image of the Internet : distributed, participative and scalable. In a
certain way, this is a governance for the Internet Age as much as Internet
Governance in the strictest sense of the term.

Hence, Internet governance not only goes beyond technical matters but may
even have implications in the future beyond the Internet itself to other
global issues. But this would get us in the debate on the notion of
stakeholder that I know Karl does not appreciate particularly :-) so let's
keep it for another time.

Hope these comments were useful.

Best

Bertrand


-- 
____________________
Bertrand de La Chapelle
Tel : +33 (0)6 11 88 33 32

"Le plus beau métier des hommes, c'est d'unir les hommes" Antoine de Saint
Exupéry
("there is no better mission for humans than uniting humans")
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