[governance] Simple and basic questions

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

Two or three simple answers -

This is what I told declan earlier - the process doesnt matter as much as
getting all the stakeholders together in the same forum, or the same room
does.

----****----
There are people attending this from a wide variety of backgrounds. You
have (nongovernmental organizations), you have regulators, you have law
enforcement, you have (Internet service providers). They're all
stakeholders in solving this problem. Probably the one thing is getting
people in the same room and exposing them to the same ideas. 
----****----

It is quite consistent with the role of the IGF as a discussion forum. You
are trying - rpt trying - to set up governance and "soft" (!) oversight
roles .. that just might not work. Change, I've often argued, comes from
within - in other words, by using open governance processes in most of the
institutions that are around here already.

My participation in the caucus discussion strengthens where I can
contribute, and attacks what I see as pernicious moves by a small section
of this caucus to act in a way that goes entirely against the letter and
spirit of the caucus.  Various motivations for this are discussed, and Veni
nails most of them in his blog post.

Why am I here? I am here because various people I do respect, and that I do
know to be doing good work, are also here. And I continue to participate
constructively when they post. I also oppose arrant nonsense when it is
trotted out simply because of a desire to play politics / further "IGP"
(standing for, in this case, "internet governance professional" **) goals
in some cases, or because of a particular ideology in other cases .. and
oppose it when - 1. It goes against the letter (or more particularly, the
spirit) of this caucus

2. Not opposing it means that other people dont actually end up believing
the nonsense enough to matter.

** If the word "IAB" can be overloaded, why not "IGP"

Milton L Mueller [26/05/08 16:09 -0400]:
>Suresh:
> 
>You have been very active lately on the IGC list. 
>If I am not mistaken, however, you have, prior to this, repeatedly
>asserted that you think the IGF is a useless institution, even though
>this caucus is organized primarily around it, and that this caucus has
>no impact on real Internet goverance. 
> 
>I find this confusing. Can you answer a few simple questions, please? 
> 
>Are you a member of IGC? I.e., have you signed the charter? 
>Do you think the UN IG Forum has an important and legitimate role in
>internet governance, and if so, what is it? 
>Is your participation in caucus discussion intended to strengthen our
>ability to build a forum for discussion, advocacy, action, and for
>representation of civil society contributions in Internet governance
>processes? 
>If you think we are all wasting our time here, why are _you_ here? 
> 
>Milton Mueller
>Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies
>XS4All Professor, Delft University of Technology
>------------------------------
>Internet Governance Project:
>http://internetgovernance.org <http://internetgovernance.org/> 
>
> 
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