[governance] WCIT melt down

[Adam Peake]

On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 12:48 PM, Keith Davidson
<keith at internetnz.net.nz> wrote:
> No Hooray for Toure then?
>

Not quite.  No :-)

I found it a bit sad when delegates were saying sorry, can't sign:
Australia which had put in so much work in Dubai (Bob Horton a bit of
a hero). Japan, which led a few WG and did much work in the AP
regional process.  What I mean is these are countries who worked at
the process. It's not a matter of "USA and friends", that's just
simplistic and belittling. They are countries that genuinely support
multi-stakeholder models.

Anyway, watching from a distance, catching transcripts and webcasts,
the feeling I get is that Toure in particular missed an opportunity.
His passion seems to be in bringing broadband to the world. It was in
that context, I think back in early May, he first mentioned looking at
new ways to fund broadband infrastructure, and that was the first time
he or anyone else in WCIT context mentioned OTT players should be
paying more.

So why did he encourage plenary to spend so many hours on Human
Rights?  It seemed to obsess him, he was personally stung by comments
and concerns (very legitimate) that some proposal had potential to
harm fundamental rights.  How many full sessions discussed a single
line of text in the preamble, 2, 3, more?  All for his own PR, he said
as much, it was about the press and perception.  So I wonder, if he
has used the same passion and time to persuade and cajole delegates to
think of ways in which the ITRs could contain high-level and lasting
principles that encouraged the spread of/access to broadband across
the globe, perhaps we would have had something useful and lasting.

Instead he seems to have allowed the Union under his leadership to
become divided.  We'll see how badly later on.

Also found his comments last night poor:

Last night: "I have been saying in the run-up to this conference that
this conference is not about governing the internet. I repeat, that
the conference did not include provisions on the internet in the
treaty text."  etc.

Opening plenary: "In preparing for this conference, we have seen and
heard many comments about ITU or the United Nations trying to take
over the Internet.  Let me be very clear one more time:  WCIT is not
about taking over the Internet.  And WCIT is not about Internet
governance."

Sorry, that's twisting words and twisting generally. The resolutions
are part of the ITRs, they can be binding on the secretariat, they are
"WICT.

So I wonder if Toure's blown his chance for a legacy.

Best,

Adam



> Cheers
>
> Keith
>
>
> On 14/12/2012 4:31 p.m., Adam Peake wrote:
>>
>>
>> Toure's words of congratulation (and sound-bites for the media) we hollow.
>>
>> Adam
>>
>
>
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