[governance] Re: IG questions that are not ICANN [was: Irony]

[William Drake]

Hi Milton,

On 12/13/07 12:25 AM, "Milton L Mueller" <mueller at syr.edu> wrote:

> However, many people in the ITU, including the So. Koreans, still seem
> to believe that we are in a pre-1997 world in which standards agreed
> upon by the telcos in intergovernmental fora really do define the
> direction of global digital media. I don't think that will be the case
> anymore. Standards dominance is very, very difficult to achieve these
> days, and when it does happen (Microsoft) it usually occurs through de
> facto market dominance, not through interogovernmental bodies. There are
> a lot of players coming from a lot of different directions. The telcos
> would really, really like for a carefully defined "NGN convergence
> architecture" to supersede the unruly Internet. Maybe they will succeed
> in that goal. But there are a lot of other powerful players, including
> consumer electronics manufacturers, Internet companies, technology
> companies. 

I think we're moving toward agreement; 'a lot of players coming from a lot
of different directions' sums it up nicely.  And a lot of forum shopping
(which is not binary, e.g. either one works in IETF or one works in
ITU---anyway the two do coordinate on some stuff) standards competition,
push and pull between different architectural visions and institutional
turfs, etc, all of which can't be summarized by rote anymore as just
netheads vs. bellheads.  And then add to the mix the highly articulated
state interest in security, particularly since Rudy's 15 minutes, and you
end up with a pretty complex topography that has to be evaluated empirically
and holistically, rather than with one eye closed. That's all I was saying,
not that the ITU has/will/should inherit the earth, or that countervailing
pressures don't exist elsewhere.  BTW Microsoft is over at the
intergovernmental body a lot, including now, alongside VeriSign, IBM,
Lucent, Nortel...lot of Yanks involved in security and other aspects of ITU
work.

> free, I am not arguing against it. But before you do, do ask intelligent
> questions about what is the best way to spend your time. And do ask

Will try, thanks.

Best,

Bill

***********************************************************
William J. Drake  drake at hei.unige.ch
Director, Project on the Information
  Revolution and Global Governance/PSIO
  Graduate Institute for International Studies
  Geneva, Switzerland
http://hei.unige.ch/psio/researchprojects/Drake.html
***********************************************************



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