[governance] rights based approach to the Internet

[Michael Gurstein]

Mmmm... Yes of course, and that's the point... These matters are subject to
some sort of state involvement in most jurisdictions (though not all I
think) and BTW your point about Somalia and North Korea are red herrings
since neither has a reasonably functioning state structure as might be
recognizable (or useful) in any good faith discussion (cf. Godwin's law) on
the issues...

And since these matters are subject to state involvement then promoting the
development of a normative framework (shorthand for "Rights"?) to underly
those processes would seem to be a very useful (and highly appropriate)
contribution from CS in discussions such as the IGF.

As for suggesting that we shouldn't be discussing something "in a forum that
produces no binding decisions" indicates to me thay you are suggesting that
we should limit the dicussion in schools, universities, churches, op ed
pages, etc.etc. to technical discussions on the proper means for the
implementation of IPv6, registry lookup tables, or whatever happens to be
the technical issue of the day.

MG


-----Original Message-----
From: McTim [mailto:dogwallah at gmail.com] 
Sent: April 15, 2008 3:47 AM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Michael Gurstein
Cc: Milton L Mueller
Subject: Re: [governance] rights based approach to the Internet


On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 6:08 AM, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com>
wrote: <snip>
>  CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY OR WHERE THE MARKET DOESN'T SEE MUCH VALUE IN 
> PROVIDING  A SUPPLY AT A REASONABLE COST IS WHERE "RIGHTS" (ON PAPER 
> OR WHEREVER)  BECOME EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AND WHERE THE INTERNET CAN 
> AND SHOULD BE "MADE"  TO GROW.

Ummm, where I live, this is done via regulation, taxation and subsequent
subsidy.  In very few places in the world is there solely a "free-market" in
telecoms/Internet (Somalia springs to mind, where prices are the cheapest in
Africa). There are also very few places in the world where there is the
heavy hand of the state in place of the market (think North Korea, where
Internet access for citizens is almost non-existent).

Between these extremes lie everyone else.  I don't see how inventing a new
"right" will lead to a new paradigm, especially in a forum that produces no
binding decisions.  It'll just be another empty promise left unfulfilled.

We will still have national regulation as the dominant paradigm in terms of
access, as long as we have the concept national sovereignty in place.

-- 
Cheers,

McTim
$ whois -h whois.afrinic.net mctim

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