[governance] Re: Russia plans to create independent web / internet

[Avri Doria]

hi,

i dislike the notion of nation states as much as anyone (as you  
probably already know), but the world is organised that way and a lot  
of people seem to favor that form of organisation.  your claim that  
certain states are coercive is certainly true, though i am not sure  
we would necessarily come up with the same list of 'bad guys.'  there  
are, after all, many different forms of coercion.

my point is that coersive states aside i have  a firm belief that any  
network anyone builds will eventually be folded into, or at least  
gated to, the Internet.  bringing together the diverse networks of,  
now, diverse people is what the Internet is about in my opinion  and  
I don't think anyone can stop that for very long.  no matter what  
they do.  and i also believe that the more network infrastructure is  
rolled out, the better.  hey, i even think corporate networks serve a  
purpose in the growth of the Internet beyond the motive for 'demon  
profit' despite the fact that they create so many firewalls and  
walled gardens an help others do the same.

a.


On 13 okt 2007, at 23.14, Milton L Mueller wrote:

>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Avri Doria [mailto:avri at psg.com]
>>
>> perhaps i have my naive glasses on again, but i wonder what the real
>> so what of all this is.
>
> The real "so what" is the attempt to realign communication patterns  
> with nation-state institutions. Nation-states, to invoke the  
> sociologist Max Weber, are territorial monopolies on the use of  
> coercive force. This linkage is something we started to break out  
> of to some extent with the de-monopolization of telecommunications,  
> the global connectivity of the Internet and the rise of a  
> transnational civil society.
>
> To view a network bounded by something as massive, centralized and  
> coercive as the Chinese state or the Russian state as "just another  
> private network" does strike me as naïve in the extreme.  
> Particularly when both political entities attempt to integrate  
> political, military, economic, technical and _linguistic_  
> considerations.
>
> Private networks are fine by me. We are not talking about private  
> networks. We are talking about national networks (atavistic  
> spectres from hell...)
>
>
>
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> 10/13/2007 7:26 PM
>
>

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