[governance] Obama on security, net neutrality, civil

[Anriette Esterhuysen]

Thanks Adam... Friday was definitely *not* a good day at the CSTD in
Geneva. I don't have the copy of the final resolution yet, but it is not
particularly positive about the IGF, makes no reference to national and
regional IGFs, and proposed text with regard to consideration being
given to reporting on WSIS follow up from non-governmental stakeholders
was not included.

It has fairly good text on the general 'state' of the information
society, but that is about as far as it goes.

Negotiations were difficult and depressing, shaped by the narrow
interest of particular governments and far removed, in my opinion, from
the CSTD mandate which is oversight of WSIS implementation with
consideration of inputs of all stakeholders and the WSIS principles in
genera.

Many of the government representatives tried extremely hard to change
this, to be positive and proactive and open. I respect their hard work.
Without their efforts the final resolution would be even worse.

Anyone who has doubts that the IGF is an important and useful space, or
that feels frustrated by it not 'making decisions' or 'leading to
action' should have been here.

The consensus based decision-making process of intergovernmental forums
such as this one sometimes does more than just reduce outcomes to the
lowest common denominator - it punishes proactivity and discourages
collaboration and openness.

Anriette - in my personal capacity NOT speaking on behalf of APC :)


On Sat, 2009-05-30 at 15:42 +0900, Adam Peake wrote:
> Interesting things happening in the US:
> 
> President Obama's speech "Securing Our Nation's Cyber 
> Infrastructure", 
> <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-Securing-Our-Nations-Cyber-Infrastructure/> 
> includes the paragraph:
> 
> "Let me also be clear about what we will not do.  Our pursuit of 
> cybersecurity will not -- I repeat, will not include -- monitoring 
> private sector networks or Internet traffic.  We will preserve and 
> protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as 
> Americans.  Indeed, I remain firmly committed to net neutrality so we 
> can keep the Internet as it should be -- open and free."
> 
> Administration supporting network neutrality, security *and* civil 
> liberty and privacy.
> 
> Next:
> 
> ICANN oversight hearing in the Congress, Thursday June 4. "Event: 
> 'Oversight Of The Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers 
> (ICANN)' "
> <http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=54&extmode=view&extid=47>
> 
> Anyone know the speakers etc?
> 
> And interesting, seems Andrew McLaughlin will join the Obama 
> administration as Deputy Chief Technology Officer, reporting to 
> Aneesh Chopra 
> <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/googles-top-policy-exec-to-join-obama-administration/>. 
> You can see Andrew talking about technology and government in this 
> video from the Obama transition 
> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InI5n3NTvR4>.
> 
> Think Friday was a good day.
> 
> Adam
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>      governance at lists.cpsr.org
> To be removed from the list, send any message to:
>      governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org
> 
> For all list information and functions, see:
>      http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
-- 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
anriette esterhuysen - executive director
association for progressive communications
p o box 29755 melville - south africa 2109
anriette at apc.org - tel/fax + 27 11 726 1692
http://www.apc.org

____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance