[governance] Interent community, internet users, and the people (was RE: [NA-Discuss] ALAC and NCUC)

[Jeremy Malcolm]

Parminder wrote:
> I have asked the question a number of times - and I ask it again - what 
> is the 'internet community'? Is it the technical and trade people 
> directly involved with the internet infrastructure (ISOC’s – a major 
> player in the field - definition seems to imply so), or the current 
> Internet users, or all people who are impacted by the Internet (which is 
> all the people of the world).

The last option is too broad to be meaningful.  My understanding of the 
Internet community is simply the community of Internet users.

In saying this I don't disagree that the interests of non-users need to 
be taken into account in certain IG issue areas that impact them, 
particularly development.  This favours the inclusion of all 
stakeholders including civil society and governments rather than just 
Internet users, in fora relevant to those issues, such as the IGF.

But it does not count for the inclusion of non-users in all IG fora, 
because there are many issue areas that will be simply irrelevant to 
them.  I can't imagine why non-users would generally need to be 
consulted by the IETF, for example.  By the same token, Internet users 
have no need to be represented in development fora.

> *Can we, in the IGC, expressly recognize ‘all people of the world, in 
> their various individual and social expressions, in equal 
> representation’ as the legitimate constituency of IG? *And also make an 
> express statement that IGC sees itself as seeking to represent the 
> interests of this constituency (and not the internet community or the 
> individual internet user, due to the above said definitional issues).

I'm not sure that I could support that as a blanket statement.  The 
stakeholders impacted by an IG issue, and therefore entitled to be heard 
in respect of it, will vary from one case to another.  However in many, 
perhaps most issue areas, existing Internet users will be the most 
directly affected and thus have the strongest claim to be heard.

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm LLB (Hons) B Com
Internet and Open Source lawyer, IT consultant, actor
host -t NAPTR 1.0.8.0.3.1.2.9.8.1.6.e164.org|awk -F! '{print $3}'
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