[governance] IGC statement REVISION 3.0: consensus call

[Sivasubramanian Muthusamy]

Hello Jean-Paul,

I agree with Jean-Louis' comment on this. In particular you could pay
attention to Bill Drake's comments ( as also my response to that ).

Shiva

On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Jean-Louis FULLSACK
<jlfullsack at orange.fr> wrote:
> Dear Jean-Paul
>
> I'd suggest you to cross Siva's opinion on the ITU and its relation to IG,
> with other ones and/or other information for shaping your own opinion. This
> would be really helpful to understand the actuel situation and the
> problematics on stake.
>
> Best regards
> Jean-Louis Fullsack
>
>
>
>
>> Message du 20/02/10 10:48
>> De : "Jean Paul NKURUNZIZA"
>> A : governance at lists.cpsr.org, "Sivasubramanian Muthusamy"
>> Copie à :
>> Objet : Re : [governance] IGC statement REVISION 3.0: consensus call comes
>>
>>
>
> Hello all !
>> Thanks a lot Sivasubramanian Muthusamy for this text. It really helped me
>> to understand more about the tension between ITU and Internet Community !
>>
>> Sincerely
>> NKURUNZIZA Jean Paul
>>
>>
>
> Tel : 783273867
>
>>
>
>>
>
> ________________________________
> De : Sivasubramanian Muthusamy
>> À : governance at lists.cpsr.org; Katitza Rodriguez
>> Envoyé le : Mar 16 Février 2010, 21 h 30 min 53 s
>> Objet : Re: [governance] IGC statement REVISION 3.0: consensus call comes
>>
>> Hello Katiza
>>
>> ITU is an anomaly that deviates from the ancient wisdom behind the dictum
>> that "a nation's capital should be situated as farther away from the sea
>> shore as possible": (merchants congregate near the sea; if the capital is
>> close to the sea, merchants would have proximity to the members of the
>> Government, so there is greater likelihood of the merchants corrupting the
>> politicians). Telecom corporations have the rare advantage of being seated
>> alongside Government at the ITU. This anomalous position makes it possible
>> for the telecoms to exercise an undue influence on governments, unnoticed by
>> the Governments.
>>
>> The ITU was established because telegraphic communication needed to be
>> standardized for interoperability across continents. ITU established
>> standards for telegraphic and phone communication.
>>
>> Governments chose to be part of the ITU when Governments owned telecom
>> corporations. Over time, most Governments have withdrawn their stakes in
>> their telecommunication corporations, but haven't ceased to be a part of
>> this business cartel. The result is that we are now left with a
>> business-government nexus, of which unwittingly Governments are a part.
>>
>> This status is a unique status, not conferred upon the business unions of
>> any other industry. ITU has been in a position to influence national and
>> global policies related to all communication. ITU's core concern is that it
>> should govern and control all business of communication. The ITU sets
>> policies and rules in all communication: Telegraphs, telephones, mobile
>> phones and it also manages the RF spectrum and satellite communications with
>> the exception of the Internet.
>>
>> ITU's idea of an Internet was a networking solution provided by telecom
>> companies on a commercial business model. ITU tried to take charge of the
>> Internet in the early days of Internet. This did not happen as the Internet
>> took shape as a free and open medium. The Internet evolved to be way beyond
>> the purview of the ITU and it shape as a world on its own.
>>
>> In its recent attempts to impose itself in Internet Governance, it
>> couldn't succeed because the mutli-stakeholder approach has rendered the
>> Civil Society as a powerful force in any policy debate (if not decision)
>> related to the Internet.
>>
>> This must have made the ITU very uncomfortable and as an organization with
>> its anachronistic status as a UN Agency, the ITU The Internet threatened the
>> business models of telecom companies as technologies such as email, VOIP
>> began to be adopted worldwide. The ITU also found a new breed of phone
>> companies like Skype that didn't obey the ITU rules becoming phenomenally
>> successful and an emerging threat to phone company revenues.
>>
>> The freedom of the Internet is because of the open architecture of the
>> Internet and due to such principles as the end to end principle, all of
>> which could be easily redefined if the task of Internet architecture and
>> Internet standards comes under the ITU umbrella. So the ITU tried to
>> interject itself in the Internet Standards process. The Critical Internet
>> Resources could be brought under the ITU umbrella by taking over a
>> vulnerable corporation called ICANN. That could ensure a technical dominance
>> of the Internet by the ITU. But for overall control, ITU needs to take over
>> Internet Governance with the argument that easily fools at least a few
>> policy makers: that the ITU is a well organized, 145 year old organization
>> that has 191 national governments as its members. It attempts to derive a
>> position in policy making (which is otherwise in the realm of Governments)
>> by interjecting itself in the policy arena as a UN Agency, while it is in
>> reality a business union.
>>
>> The ITU organizes the World Telecommunication Policy Forum in an attempt
>> to position itself / retain its position in the policy arena. The ITU
>> asserts its position in policy making in subtle ways. For instance, at the
>> IGF in Sharm el Sheikh, an ITU representative said " We have no intention
>> whatsoever to do the business of the ICANN, what the ICANN is doing
>> best...everybody doesn't want the ICANN to do what is the mandate of the ITU
>> of policy-making, public-policy issues and so on”
>>
>> That was subtle. The ITU representative had managed to assert that policy
>> making is ITU's birthright and that the ITU has a legitimate and unequaled
>> role in policy making. This inappropriate statement was somehow allowed to
>> slip in without a challenge at the IGF.
>>
>> At Egypt, ITU's representatives raised questions about IPv6 allocation
>> system, in an attempt to bring the ITU into the function of allocation of IP
>> addresses. This was mild compared to a blatant speech by the Secretary
>> General at ICANN Cairo, which almost amounted to a bid to take over ICANN.
>>
>> ITU's constant attempts to gain a "controlling interest" in Internet
>> Governance is resisted by the Internet Community. This is what causes the
>> 'tensions'.
>>
>> Sivasubramanian Muthusamy
>>
>
>
>
>>
>
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 10:21 PM, Katitza Rodriguez
> <katitza at datos-personales.org> wrote:
>>
>
> Greetings:
>>
>> Can someone explain me the ITU-IGF tension? I do not follow ITU.
>>
>> Thanks.
>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 21, 2010, at 11:42 AM, Yehuda Katz wrote:
>>
>>
>
> My constructive dissection:
>>
>>
>
> None of these suggestions would fundamentally alter the IGF as an
> institution;
>>
>
> for example, we are content that it remain formally convened by the UN
>> Secretary General, with an independent budget and a Secretariat under
>> contract
>> with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
>> (UNDESA).  We
>> do not see any benefit to the IGF in moving underneath a different UN
>> body.
>>
>> I take it that: "... We do not see any benefit to the IGF in moving
>> underneath
>> a different UN body. ..." addresses the ITU's position.
>> Myself, I see no insult in addressing the ITU's position more directly.
>> (Spit
>> it out)
>>
>> Add something like this: And it is genraly felt that if the IGF is to be
>> subsumed by the ITU, then IGC members would prefer the IGF remain
>> independent
>> of the UN umbrella.
>>
>> I am suggesting to leave open 'The-Thought' of an Independent IGF for
>> serval
>> reasons,
>> 1. There may be Other UN Branches (Other than the ITU) that want to hose
>> the
>> IGF
>> 2. It may be that the IGF can be Independent and 'First among Equals'
>> (among
>> all the UN Branches) in respect to Internet Policy, underwritten by the
>> MDG and
>> WSIS Declarations.
>> 3. if the IGF is in fact slated to conclude, the statement establishes the
>> IGC's commitment to the IGF's ongoing Independence.
>> ...
>> Don't be Shy, the Chair at the ITU certainly is not. Give them (Dese &
>> Markus)
>> the fuel to fight.
>> I don't feel you'll insult anyone by being Frank & Direct, in fact now is
>> the
>> time to do just that, the delicate 'Modalities' as Bertrand de La Chapelle
>> puts
>> it can come later.
>>
>> Else where in your statement, you should add something a-kin too "Piercing
>> the
>> corporate Veil", that is make reference to the 'Invisibility' of the UN
>> Umbrella Insider negotiations (UN inside modalities) regarding the
>> determination of the IGF's composition, that should be made real-time and
>> transparent to All.
>>
>> I use the 'Piercing the corporate Veil' analogy because I feel They (the
>> UNSG/UNDESA/ITU/IGF Chairs) have broken their contract with US, in regards
>> to
>> Transparency of the final negotiations. Last Year's transactions/actions
>> were
>> evidence of the fact.
>> ---
>>
>> * Piercing the corporate Veil
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piercing_the_corporate_veil
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