[governance] IGC workshops

[William Drake]

Hi Milton,

Not sure what the disconnect is here.  NGN is a term used in industry  
and policy circles world wide to characterize the shift underway from  
PSTNs to IP-based convergent nets with new architectures and service  
provisioning models.  An important part of those new models, if the  
carriers get their way, is to abandon NN, ergo my characterization of  
the issues as part and parcel of the NGN shift.  Some observers say  
that NGNs could provide the technical means to monitor and manage  
traffic in such a manner that all applications are treated on a  
nondiscriminatory basis, but that doesn't appear the to be preference  
of the carriers making the investments.  And they're getting their way  
in various places; governments like the UK's have specifically  
rejected NN as a barrier to NGN development.  So I was simply  
suggesting we might want to consider NN in the context of the larger  
transformation underway.

I've moaned here on and off for years about the apparent aversion to  
assessing the potential impacts of trends in the telecom industry,  
including its global governance, on the Internet and IG.  It really  
puzzles me that we would treat a katrillion dollar industry that  
controls much of the underlying infrastructure as somehow irrelevant,  
particularly after all the (semi-coherent) discussions of  
international interconnection charging and such in WSIS and beyond.   
The singular obsession with ICANN---not so much what ICANN actually  
does, the issues it addresses, but rather what it is or represents  
institutionally---seems to blot out interest in other issues and  
leaves the ministries and industry to merrily go there way without any  
public interest advocacy as a countervailing force beyond purely  
national discussions.  Since we can't or don't participate in most of  
the international spaces where this stuff goes on, why would we not  
want to use the opportunities provided by the IGF to explore these  
dynamics, especially when they're directly relevant to the focus of  
the workshop?

Whatever...dead horse duly beaten, back to our regular programming...

Cheers,

Bill



On Jun 8, 2009, at 6:04 AM, Milton L Mueller wrote:

> No, I just misunderstood your statement that Net Neutrality is “part  
> and parcel” of the NGN trajectory. What you apparently mean is that  
> phone companies may be using NGN to _avoid_ being neutral, which may  
> be true, and is certainly important if it is. I still don’t know  
> what you meant by “…of which it is part and parcel.”
>
> From: William Drake [mailto:william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch]
> Sent: Sunday, June 07, 2009 12:38 PM
> To: Milton L Mueller
> Cc: Governance List
> Subject: Re: [governance] IGC workshops
>
> Hi Milton,
>
> On Jun 7, 2009, at 4:49 PM, Milton L Mueller wrote:
>
>
>
> I agree.  We might want to consider widening the lens an little and  
> placing NN in the context of the whole NGN trajectory, of which it  
> is part and parcel.
>
> It is???? I hope not. That’s a peculiarly Geneva-centric view of NN
>
>
> Are you saying that carriers around the world are not in fact making  
> the investments and pursuing the strategies they say they are--- 
> replacing PSTNs with IP core and access nets, trying to move to QOS  
> and differentiation, etc?  Or that because they adopt the standards  
> and coordinate on the policies in Geneva, it doesn't matter that  
> they are doing these things? Or that because in Geneva they use  
> terminology they may not use as much in the US, it doesn't matter  
> that they are doing these things? Or that taking note of the global  
> trends is suspect if one is based in Geneva?  Or...?  Perhaps a  
> peculiarly US-centric view of NN at work here...:-)
>
> But forget the term, forget the ITU.  The question is, in the IGF  
> context, would it be optimal to continue talking about NN as a stand- 
> alone issue, or might it be useful to view it as part of a larger  
> set of dynamics in the telecom industry that could affect the net  
> going forward?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bill

***********************************************************
William J. Drake
Senior Associate
Centre for International Governance
Graduate Institute of International and
   Development Studies
Geneva, Switzerland
william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html
***********************************************************

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