[governance] rights based approach to the Internet

McTim dogwallah at gmail.com
Mon Apr 14 09:29:08 EDT 2008


On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 2:43 PM, Parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> > In its simplest terms I guess the question is whether there is now the
> need to state that there is a "Right to the Internet".

We can state it all we want, but that doesn't mean it is independent
of the marketplace.  I have a "right to water" (IIRC via the UN), but
I still have to pay the local water board for it.


>
>
>
> Yes. 'Right to the Internet' is the precise statement of the issue, and we
> think it is worthy of a workshop discussion. However, my assertion goes
> beyond access and right 'to' the Internet, where Internet is considered as a
> given entity, not in itself subject to social and political construction,
> and therefore to politics and policy. I think the construction of what the
> Internet is, in all its layers - logical, content, applications etc (and not
> only the infrastructural layer which provided 'access' to this Internet) -
> itself is as much an issue and space of rights as it is of market based
> exchange, which is how it is at present pre-dominantly seen.
>
>
>
> Thus 'right to the Internet' should include certain rights to what is 'on'
> the Internet, and also to own and co-construct the Internet (cf
> co-constructivism in education). All this implies a very different basis of
> IG regime than what we see today.

You are incorrect.  My ability to own and co-construct (as an
end-user/network operator/content producer/$ROLE) the Internet is
EXACTLY the IG "regime" that we have today.

I think that you don't really understand how the network grows,
perhaps the Diplo course will help you.

-- 
Cheers,

McTim
$ whois -h whois.afrinic.net mctim
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