[governance] what is it that threatens the Internet community or 'who is afraid of the IGF'

[veni markovski]

Milton,
you know how much I respect you, but here I have to bring the 
perspective of someone who knows the "other side of the story". And 
that is, that for the developing countries it is an issue about 
access - access to information, but also affordability, freedom of 
this access, etc.
However, there's one big issue, which is that - still - the 
developing countries pay more to the developed ones for their access 
to the Internet, and that is the big issue. I certainly believe that 
IP addresses may have some importance, but it's nothing compared to 
the prices poor and underdeveloped countries (and users) pay to the 
rich countries in order just to get to the leased line (or the 
fiber-optic, wherever it exists).

So, while you say that the international issues are different from 
the ones I described above, it may be true only from your perspective 
- of an US professor. For your colleagues in Africa, Asia, South 
America, Southeastern Europe... the important questions are not the 
ones you care about.

To believe that the "organic domestic economic growth that produces 
viable relations among suppliers and consumers of Internet services." 
is just to believe in market economy only, without taking into 
account that sometimes the countries may not have stable economic 
growth for a number of reasons, and in many cases the Internet users 
(consumers as you name them) don't really have a choice, but to use 
the state-owned monopolist.

Hope that this note will make you re-arrange your priorities, esp. 
that you have a project that is talking about Internet governance.

best,
Veni

At 15:03 9/7/2007  -0400, you wrote:

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeanette Hofmann [mailto:jeanette at wzb.eu]
> >While it is true that discussions on access and
> >discussion on critical internet resourses don't
> >exclude each other, it is also true that public
> >attention is limited. During WSIS, the debate on
> >Internet Governance was so dominant that other
> >controversial issues such as the financing of ICTs
> >never got the attention it deserved.
>
>This brings up another point: what is really within the purview of
>global governance and what is primarily a national issue? I personally
>believe that the most salient issues with respect to the financing,
>construction and economic sustainability of the physical layer (and
>let's remember that the Internet is layer 3 -- networking software --
>not layer 1, physical) are played out at the national level, or in
>venues dealing with trade in products and services (WTO, market access,
>foreign investment, etc.). Here, domestic telecom policy is a critical
>factor. No amount of top-down financing by UN agencies can serve as a
>substitute for organic domestic economic growth that produces viable
>relations among suppliers and consumers of Internet services.
>
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Veni Markovski
http://www.veni.com

check also my blog:
http://blog.veni.com

The opinions expressed above are those of the author,
not of any organizations, associated with or related to
the author in any given way.


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