[governance] a good read

[Mawaki Chango]

To address more specifically (as opposed to my previous posts in this
thread) the suggestion of Internet public policy vs Internet governance, I'd
generally agree with the objections raised so far: there are many more
moving parts to governance than you'd have with public policy in general,
and more particularly when it comes to Internet. Also, I concur that the
development and implementation of public policy is just a specific form of
governance among others. In reality, the mere fact that 'governance' by
definition is readily open to a multistakeholder exercise, which is not
necessarily the case for public policy making, should be enough to put the
IISD's suggestion to rest. But allow me address some of the previous
arguments.

First, there certainly is something out there that deserves the name of IG.
Second, ICANN, IETF, W3C, IETF, etc. do not trade or are not designed to
trade in public policy regarding the Internet. So if the label IG is not
satisfying talking about the activities conducted by those bodies and their
significance to the Internet globally, IPP is certainly not better in that
role.

Second, IGF is another beast ...still evolving, maybe. At face value, the
thing itself is a global agora, an open forum to whomever it may concern to
participate in (and yes, dialogue and debates are the sort of things that
happen in that kind of places) etc. I'll let others try a comprehensive
definition of its content (what is talked about, which may not exactly
coincide with what is effected) but it seems to me it will have to include
IG as well as IPP issues, even though the Forum does not make such policy.

Now, if we're looking for an alternative name for IG as subject area, I'm
not sure 'Information governance' is the most fitting. Key words are:
network, information and communication. I understand 'information' may be
the most ubiquitous of the three in terms of use for defining our era (eg,
information revolution, society, etc.) But I wonder if 'Network governance'
would not be a better choice, Network being a shorthand for (global)
'information and communication networks' as it is the new network diagram
and architecture that has made the whole thing revolutionary, not
information per se that has been with us forever. Noting that IT governance
has already been captured by the corporate world (besides, the T might sound
too exclusive), other options may include: 'IP governance' (IP in generic
sense) and 'Internet in global governance'. But then again, in view of these
results, 'global internet governance' was not such a bad candidate after
all!

Best,

Mawaki



On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 2:35 AM, Jeanette Hofmann <jeanette at wzb.eu> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> while I understand the uneasiness of assembling a broadening field of
> policy action under an unchanging term, I don't follow IISD's solution. In
> my view, public policy is just one specific form of governance, not an
> alternative. What might change in the long run is the other component of the
> term. Internet may appear to be too narrow to cover all the aspects
> addressed in this field. Some people now refer to information governance as
> a broader concept.
>
> jeanette
>
>
> On 22.09.2010 20:59, McTim wrote:
>
>> FYI:
>>
>> http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2010/icts_internet_sd_new_paradigm.pdf
>>
>> For those getting tired of the term "Internet Governance" (like me)
>> please see bottom of page 6:
>>
>> "The term “Internet governance” has been widely used since the World
>> Summit on the Information Society to describe not just the technical
>> management and coordination of the Internet itself (which is sometimes
>> called “narrow Internet governance”), but also the
>> relationship between the Internet and mainstream public policy issues
>> that are affected by it (sometimes called “broad Internet
>> governance”). Both of these types of issues are discussed,
>> for example, in the Internet Governance Forum.
>> IISD believes that the use of the term “Internet governance” for this
>> wide range of issues is increasingly inappropriate, particularly where
>> issues fall primarily in other public policy arenas. IISD therefore
>> prefers to use the term “Internet public policy” for this wider range
>> of issues"
>>
>>  ____________________________________________________________
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