[governance] MEASURING the digital space - whose MEASURES apply, and whose do not

[Paul Lehto]

On 8/30/11, michael gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:

> One of the basic understandings of the Philosophy/Sociology of Science is
> that we all tend to reduce our understanding of new phenomena down to a mode
> which is intelligible within our existing framework of
> understanding/knowledge.  When it is no longer possible to do this then a
> new framework (paradigm) comes haltingly forward that allows us to explain
> those phenomena that remain inexplicable--incommensurable--with the attempts
> at imposing the existing framework and a new frammework/paradigm of
> understanding is born and very soon becomes the new orthodoxy and in turn
> becomes "that of which it is impossible to consider an alternative".

Are you suggesting that many people who don't really understand the
internet within their pre-existing frames have invented a
quasi-religious frame of awe riddled with phrases like "the internet
changes(d) everything?"

In my country the phrase "9-11 changed everything" is associated with
a dramatic reduction in human freedom.

> As examples, Paul's system of national legal frameworks is one such
> paradigm, McTim's system of IETF formulated and prescribed standards is
> another.

Most people have multiple frameworks.  The law is more than a mere
opinion or point of view, however, and is not of equal validity with
every other frame or any other framework.


> The value of such an argument from a civil society perspective I think, is
> that it links overall economic activity (GDP) with the Internet, and links
> the Internet with the production of social capital which in turn becomes
> something of a backdoor way of arguing that investment in ICT should be as
> much focused on education, health, and social support as it is on bits and
> bytes--hardware and software--something I'm assuming we all agree with but
> also something which is not taken as a necessary given by those folks
> managing current economic policies.
>
> Comments, critiques, suggestions with respect to the above are gratefully
> welcomed.

Seems like something worth dialog, not withstanding my critique of the
religious beliefs of some concerning the internet. The yardstick used
to measure is critically important.  If the health of the economy is
constantly measured predominantly with stock market value indices as a
yardstick, predictable consequences follow...


-- 
Paul R Lehto, J.D.
P.O. Box 1
Ishpeming, MI  49849
lehto.paul at gmail.com
906-204-4026 (cell)
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