[governance] enhanced consultations - further inputs

[Milton L Mueller]

> -----Original Message-----
> I'd start from a position that Public Policy is what's expressed in laws
> and treaties, whereas operational policy is founded in standards
> documents and contracts (and including Acceptable-Use Policies and Best
> Practices). The overlaps starts when someone says "hey - let's have a
> law or treaty that says this technical standard or contract term is
> compulsory".
> --

The overlap starts well before that.

What you are saying, in effect, is that if the government wants to impose public policy concerns on the industry it must alter the technical standards, or operations, or private contractual terms among ISPs, hosting companies, etc. Conversely, if it wants to allow industry players to set standards, perform operations or negotiate contracts on their own, it will have little influence on public policy. That tells me the two are inseparable. 

More fundamentally (and this is a point I explore at length in Networks and States), when you talk about "public policy" what "public" are you talking about? On the global internet, there are 200+ national publics, many more subnational publics, and several transnational or regional publics involved. If so, what gives a "national" public in the form of one government the right to legislate in ways that affect 20 or 30 other publics over which they have no legitimate authority? 

Communications media create their own publics. 

____________________________________________________________
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

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t