[governance] NYT opinion by Vint Cerf: Internet Access is not a HR

[Carlos A. Afonso]

Dear people, the way this exegesis is going soon we will find ourselves
condemming Finland for establishing in law that access to broadband is a
basic right of every Finnish citizen, access to roads is not a right per
se since a road is a building technology, access to decent housing is
likewise not a right, and so on. Noticing of course that everyone in
this debate has plenty of access (to all these "technologies") relative
to the specific circumstances of each one's countries.

Interesting. Reminds me of the absurd philosophizing when Dr Cerf and
his flock defended that the logical infrastructure should not be touched
in the Internet govenance debate because of a fatwa (furiously defended
by the business community) saying "thou shalt not touch what is not
broken", and from this a lengthy debate ensued until we managed to
reluctantly agree to the elusive "critical Internet resources" phrase to
let the theme into the Rio IGF. In the meantime Dr Cerf dropped this
fatwa (which he used to teach in detail in his "Internet 101" speeches),
his faithful followers took a while to assimilate it, and finally we
could discuss ICANN in the IGF.

fraternal regards

--c.a.

On 01/07/2012 06:54 AM, Divina MEIGS wrote:
> 
> Dear Ginger, Avri, Jean-Louis and other members of the list
> 
> I would like to join my support to Jean-Louis¹s approach to Vint Cerf¹s
> comment and make it a plea not to confuse  technology with  humanity, so as
> to remain people-centered as a civil society group. I understand the need to
> bridge the digital divide and to ensure that ICT-driven media foster
> equality and solidarity. But, the real human rights behind access to
> internet already exist, and they are related to freedom of expression and
> freedom of diffusion, as well as right to dignity, equality, privacy,
> education and participation (among the most important). Access per se
> doesn¹t make sense, because it is too easily confused and confined  to
> technological hook-up: access is also about understanding quality content,
> using it and eventually producing it (which requires education,
> expression...). 
> It doesn¹t mean that we can¹t battle to ask for cheaper, open, interoperable
> access to broadband but it has to be seen as an enhancer of rights and not
> be confused as a right in itself. I would rather plea for a broader
> information and communication rights package that supports  individual and
> collective creativity as well as  pluralism of ideas.
> 
> What we need to engage in, when dealing with this issue in multi-stakeholder
> perspective is to ensure that the engineering community is ethically minded
> and considers those human rights in the early design process of ICTs, not as
> post-production gimmick under the form of opaque guidelines for indiscrimate
> users.    We need to ensure that   human rights applied to ICT-driven media
> maintain their capacity to evolve for the benefit of people and we need to
> keep concentrating on relevant international instruments to ensure just
> that.   As such we cannot let the technical community focus our attention on
> a single aspect of the package that happens to play in favour of the
> commercial expansion of proprietary  infrastructures. Let¹s keep our
> attention focused on  open software, public value, information commons, net
> neutrality and interoperability. This should empower people to prevent
> fragmentation of the networks, privatisation and monopolistic property,
> unwarranted surveillance, and threats on freedom of expression and dignity.
> 
> Best
> Divina 
> 
> Divina Frau-Meigs
> Professor, Sorbonne nouvelle University
> 
> New books: 
> Divina Frau-Meigs, Socialisation des jeunes et éducation aux médias, Eres,
> 2011
> To order: 
> http://www.editions-eres.com/parutions/education-formation/education-et-soci
> ete/p2839-socialisation-des-jeunes-et-education-aux-medias.htm  and download
> online chapter on ³news and youth images²  by clicking on "Supplément à
> l'ouvrage"  
> 
> Divina Frau-Meigs, Media Matters in the Cultural Contradictions of the
> ŒInformation Society¹: towards a human-rights based governance, Council of
> Europe publishing, 2011
> To order : 
> http://book.coe.int/EN/ficheouvrage.php?PAGEID=36&lang=EN&produit_aliasid=26
> 06
> 
> 
> Le 07/01/12 00:29, « Jean-Louis FULLSACK » <jlfullsack at orange.fr> a écrit :
> 
>>
>>   
>> In a necessarily short article Vinton Cerf found the right words for
>> countering the ICT/Internet evangelists ­the heads of ITU and UNESCO, in tune
>> with Cisco and Carlos Slim are some of the most zealous for different but
>> concurrent reasons- who are using the context of WSIS ad nauseam, to convince
>> the whole world that access to ICTs and Internet IS TO BE a Human Right.
>> What¹s more, this ³new age human right² has shifted from ³old fashioned DSL
>> access² to Broadband access two years ago, with the full blessing of UNESCO
>> (many thanks from the corporate ICT world !) and the ITU. Listen to their
>> apologia for the ³Broadband as a basic need for DCs, like water² during the
>> WSIS Forum last year, on the ITU WSIS website !
>>   
>> Never was this shocking comparison questioned by any African representative,
>> even from the civil society.
>>   
>>  
>>   
>> That¹s why Vinton¹s statement is not only right in words and in time, but also
>> urgently needed for bringing this derailing WSIS bandwagon on a new track,
>> i.e. on actual Human needs, namely those mentioned by the MDGs, the Earth
>> Summits (i.a. Jo¹burg)  and the Fourth UN Conference of the Least Developed
>> Countries (LDC IV, Istanbul 2011). For this to happen, Vinton¹s statement that
>>   
>> ³Technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself²
>>   
>> is the fundamental idea to take in account.
>>   
>>  
>>   
>> What¹s more, he considers ³the responsibility of technology creators
>> themselves to support human and civil rights² as a fundamental issue. And he
>> adds 
>>   
>> ³As we seek to advance the state of the art in technology and its use in
>> society, we must be conscious of our civil responsibilities in addition to our
>> engineering expertise².
>>   
>> Isn¹t that at the very core of the WSIS discussion and of the CS commitment ?
>>   
>>  
>>   
>> The only issue I missed in Vinton¹s statement is the mention of the pharaonic
>> amount of financing invested in ICTs and Internet broadband infrastructure in
>> DCs, in particular in Africa, and the huge sums paid by the mobile phone
>> users. A large part of this treasury is a misuse of precious financial
>> resources which could be otherwise spent on more vital needs for the
>> population.      
>>   
>>  
>>   
>> Notwithstanding, my warmest congratulations and gratitude to Vinton Cerf for
>> this brilliant lesson. Let¹s hope that those to whom it is addressed are able
>> for listening it.
>>   
>>  
> 
> 
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t