[governance] another interesting IG piece in Forbes

[McTim]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrydownes/2012/01/25/who-really-stopped-sopa-and-why/

Those seeking to understand what kind of governance Internet users are
willing to accept would do well to start by studying the engineering
that establishes the network and how it is governed.  The key
protocols and standards that make the Internet work—that make the
Internet the Internet–are developed and modified by voluntary
committees of engineers, who meet virtually to debate the merits of
new features, design changes, and other basic enhancements.

The engineering task forces are meritocratic and open.  The best ideas
win through vigorous debate and testing.  No one has seniority or a
veto.    There’s no influence peddling or lobbyists.  The engineers
are allergic to hypocrisy and public relations rhetoric.  It’s a pure
a form of democracy as has ever been implemented.  And it works
amazingly well.

Today’s Internet activists have adopted those engineering principles
as their political philosophy.  In that sense, their core ideals have
not changed much since 1996, when John Perry Barlow published his
prophetic “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” in response
to an equally ill-considered law that banned “indecent” content from
the then-primitive World Wide Web.  (The U.S. Supreme Court quickly
threw it out as unconstitutional.)   “We have no elected government,”
Barlow wrote, “nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no
greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks.”

-- 
Cheers,

McTim
"A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A
route indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel

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