[governance] Government involvement in Internet governance on November 4

[Norbert Bollow]

Daniel Kalchev <daniel at digsys.bg> wrote:

> Involving governments in the management of Internet is one of the
> worst ideas, ever.

I agree, although I'd describe the reasons differently than you do.
(I have a feeling that we might be very much in agreement, just
inclined to express things differently.)

>From my perspective, the key problem with involving governments in
core technical Internet governance and management is that they don't
understand the technical and architectural concerns nor the processes
for building technical consensus. I'd very much like to see government
representatives with this important background knowledge becoming
involved in all the various Internet governance institutions. In fact,
with the exception of ICANN where the government representatives are
fenced into their own little walled garden called GAC, in all the
other core Internet governance fora there's nothing to hinder the
effective participation of government representatives besides their
lack of knowledge and capacity, i.e. the goverments' failure to hire
people as their representatives who are able to interact in these fora
competently and effectively.

What is terrible is the idea of giving governments increased authority
over the Internet without them having the prerequisite understanding,
respect for technical consensus building processes and ability to
effectively participate there. Governance by governments who are
ignorant in this respect would result in the governments making either
"political" decisions that are technically and systemically bad,
likely resulting in severe degradation of fundamental human rights
such as freedom of expression, and/or decisions that unreasonably
favor the interests of big corporations who would spend significant
money on lobbying for that to happen.

Greetings,
Norbert
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