[governance] IGF relevance?

parminder parminder at itforchange.net
Fri Apr 15 21:45:41 EDT 2011 

Hi Lee

On Saturday 16 April 2011 04:10 AM, Lee W McKnight wrote:
> Fouad,
>
> The good or bad news, depending upon one perspective, is that this issue will not really be 'settled' for years and years.

Bad news, because, as Lessig said,  'architecture is policy' and if the 
architecture is already made and well developed by default, there wont 
be much that policy can do long after. Hence the urgency in the matter 
from a developing country point of view.
> So there is plenty of time for other nations to consider and weigh their interests, and views.  Especially since the moral imperative underlying the discussion, fairness in treating others, is I believe commonly held in all cultures since ancient times.
>
> That is, if there is a ferry which may take you across a river, everyone knows the ferry must let you board, if you pay the fee.
>
> Only problem is determining the moral equivalent on the Internet is subject to more interpretations.
>
> Whereas in ancient times, if the ferryman would not let you on board, even though you were prepared to pay just like anyone else, you would beat him.  People, and ferry operators, figured out thousands of years ago - it is best if anyone can get on.
>
> Giving ATT or anyone else the same kind of beat down for a violation of the Internet equivalent - is a bit harder.
A very important question to ask. Where does the coercive power to 
ensure public interest based compliance lie. It used to lie with the 
nation states but with globalization, global capital escapes these 
controls by playing one state against the other, and developed country 
states against developing country ones. Whereby, even if by the logic of 
domestic pulbic interest NN is clearly important, this imperative has to 
be wieghed against the huge global economic advantage and benefits that 
developed country based global digital corporates bring for these 
countries. Developing country governments, on the other hand, have 
little political leverage over these global corporates. Try to regulate 
them in public interest, and they will abandon the country in a matter 
of days.

This is 'the' key political issue in a globalised world, more so for the 
inherently global phenomenon of the Internet. And the only adequate 
response to it that comes to my mind is working towards stronger 
(democratic) global political institutions. Starting with framing global 
norms for NN would be a good thing to do in this regard.

parminder

>
>
> Lee
> ________________________________________
> From: governance at lists.cpsr.org [governance at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf Of Fouad Bajwa [fouadbajwa at gmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, April 15, 2011 3:33 PM
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; parminder
> Subject: Re: [governance] IGF relevance?
>
> That is my feeling too. Everything seems to stop with EU and US
> centric NN discussions and debates. The rest of the world can sit
> quietly and wait while everything is okay on that side and the rules
> are set for the rest to follow.
>
> NN seems to be a no go area or no discuss issue for the developing
> world and thats where the primary questions arises to how can
> developing regions take on this debate because the neutrality of the
> network is as important for them and their sustainability too.
>
> The developed perspective usually is that what they say is what is
> authority over any other discussion and I cannot buy that.
>
> -- FoO
>
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 6:33 PM, parminder<parminder at itforchange.net>  wrote:
>>
>> On Thursday 14 April 2011 08:34 AM, Milton L Mueller wrote:
>>
>> I am going to raise some eyebrows and question the decision to do a Network
>> neutrality workshop. This is an issue that is being and will be handled by
>> national regulatory authorities.
>>
>> Can you tell me about some developing countries (other than Brazil, and
>> perhaps recently Chile) where anything is happening on Net Neutrality?
>>
>> The positions of the various actors and interest groups are well known and
>> well-aired. Nothing the IGF says or does will have much impact on what
>> happens in this space. The US Congress will probably negate the current FCC
>> rules and the US will have to either pass new legislation or find some other
>> way to pursue those policy goals; the IGF does not enter into the equation.
>> The same can be said for Europe: the EU and national regulatory authorities
>> are actively debating this, and it is the opinions of the nra's, DG INFO, DG
>> MARKT and its competition law that matter, not IGF.
>>
>> So that is where your world stops :). Yes, US and EU are doing fine at home
>> on NN, but can we, rest of us, not just wait till US and EU NN rules are
>> finalized and through their economic (also political and social) might
>> imposed on the rest of the world? By your permission, we are just seeking
>> democratic management of the medium that is touted as a great democratic
>> force. Do you agree to such an objective? do you want to contribute?
>>
>> parminder
>>
>>
>>
>> On the other hand, there are developments in IP addressing that cry out for
>> a global forum to work out a new policy. For some background, see this
>> recent IGP blog article:
>> http://blog.internetgovernance.org/blog/_archives/2011/3/25/4778257.html
>> In facing a controversial issue that seemed to require global policy but go
>> beyond the mandate of ARIN, the head of ARIN recently asked on a public
>> list, sincerely, which venue could be used to discuss the issue?
>>
>> It is abundantly clear that on a few key internet governance issues, ranging
>> from Wikileaks
>>
>>   to IP addressing there are inadequate globalized institutions.
>>
>> One reason IGF is losing relevance, is that IGF's leadership seems to be
>> utterly blind when it comes to distinguishing between issues where it can be
>> entrepreneurial and fill gaps in the current institutional environment, and
>> issues where it has no real capacity to contribute anything.
>> It seems that IGF always falls prey to the disease of UN organizations,
>> which is to create opportunities for politicians and others who enjoy
>> publicity to intone pleasing platitudes on gigantic problems which it has no
>> capacity to solve, while completely avoiding the hard work of solving
>> smaller, less glamorous problems it can actually do something about.
>>
>> --MM
>>
>>
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