[governance] Internet G8 meeting

parminder parminder at itforchange.net
Tue May 3 07:50:38 EDT 2011 

Hi Lee

On Tuesday 03 May 2011 04:33 PM, Lee W McKnight wrote:
> Parminder,
>
> If I recall correctly G7 meetings as far back as...95? 93? 97 at latest...had similar themes, albeit with phraseology then around the more inclusive 'information society.'
Yes, even the idea of ICTD was born at G 8 meetings, wrapped in very 
alien ideologies, and it has never recovered from this accident of its 
birth. We in devleoping countries know how we suffer this fact, and how 
ICTD consequently has remained distanced from traditional development 
practice. As a result, the best opportunities of ICTs for development 
have not been able to be realized.

> OK in my recollection there was a broader less commercial agenda back then than the 2011 version, back in the day, with cs folks more likely prominent on the agenda.
That is not  a small difference. If civil society participation, or to 
use a more fashionable term, multistakeholderism, is being pushed back 
in the plurilateral meetings (with global impact), why is civil society 
quite. Why does it reserve all its - instinctive and intense - 
opposition and venom for UN processes, which, whatever else may be said 
about them, are certainly better than those of these rich country clubs.

Why there is such a powerful rhetoric around the slogan of 'UN (read 
developing country govs) take over of the Internet' and none about 'rich 
countries takeover of the Internet in partnership with mega-corporates', 
which is where we surely seem to be headed. How some discourses are 
manufactured so easily, and others are simply not allowed to 
precipitate. While the IG civil society is largely organized around 'UN 
take over of the Internet' slogan/ banner and it is so difficult to 
build civil society mass around addressing  the other, now much larger, 
danger?
> But point is high level showcase schmooze-athons have been going on at or near this level for quite some time, related to Internet.
>
> If one for whatever reason gets close to being part of agenda - it is a big pain and probably not worth cost to any cs org. In my experience from walking away from getting sucked into such things in past.
>
> Except for largest/wealthiest cs orgs, it is very hard to play at this level.
 From what you are saying, can we agree then that the UN processes, 
where at least some openings are always there for relatively outsider 
groups to participate, are a much better bet for us, I mean the global 
IG civil society.  But can you take the UN system haters among the CS 
along on this. Such hatred may still be ok if the same people were not 
so so friendly with the government reps of these rich countries, and not 
only that, together they make such elaborate show of die hard support 
for multistakeholderism in UN forums, and disdain developing country 
governments, or even civil society actors who may be more policy 
institutions oriented.

Can we, in the above background, safely say that the multistakeholder 
show of the developed countires at UN is simply a ruse - and  a quite 
successful one till date - to resist inclusion of developing countries 
in any global govenrance regimes for the Internet? Whereby, we must then 
also question the role IG civil society has, willy nilly, been playing 
in this global 'game'. I suggest this is time for such intense 
retrospection by the IGC and other civil society actors.

Some of the above posers may be deliberatively provocative, but we need 
to ask some hard questions from ourselves.

Parminder
> Maybe, instead of worrying about sales pitches from corporates at G7, you could...work the system towards a more cs-friendly G-20 showcase?
>
> (I suspect you may know people who people who...could make it so.) Frankly if global cs were to play, it would more likely be worth our bother to aim for a 2012 G20 meeting.
>
>   Though Paris in spring is always pleasant. But G20 is where the markets and - policy action - is these days anyways.
>
> Lee
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: governance at lists.cpsr.org [governance at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf Of Roland Perry [roland at internetpolicyagency.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 4:51 AM
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Subject: Re: [governance] Internet G8 meeting
>
> In message<4DBFA6B4.7090503 at itforchange.net>, at 12:24:44 on Tue, 3 May
> 2011, parminder<parminder at itforchange.net>  writes
>
>> We wrote to the UN asking for more spaces for civil society for the Dec
>> consultations on enhanced cooperation. What about this G8 Internet
>> meeting?
> The G8's nothing to do with the UN, nor is there an assumption that
> rules of multistakeholderism can be imposed from one to the other.
> Indeed, many would regard it as a positive feature that organisations
> can have their own working methods independent from the UN.
>
>   >  This kind of thing was unthinkable a few years back.
>
> It's very appropriate that such a G8 meeting emerges now, because a
> previous G8 cybersecurity initiative[1], which got up to speed with a
> meeting in Paris in May 2000 and concluded with a meeting in Tokyo on
> May 2001, was very soon stalled[2] when law enforcement's resources were
> diverted away from the Internet and towards terrorism after 9/11.
>
> But the ground rules were written all that time ago, and not much has
> changed since.
>
> http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/i_crime/high_tec/conf0105-3.html
>
> [1] Full title: "Government/Industry Dialogue on Safety and Confidence
>                     in Cyberspace"
>
> [2] One of the few identifiable results of the work was the EU's Data
>        Retention Directive.
> --
> Roland Perry
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