[governance] Re: CIRP+

Tue May 15 04:56:21 EDT 2012

It is a good point questioning some of the IG mantras. I wonder if one 
could argue that the online world is more hierarchical and territorial 
than the 'normal' world. A few points...

The term 'hierarchy' is used so loosely, mainly in a negative context. 
It is a part of a government-bashing trend. But, hierarchy was not 
invented by bureaucrats as I heard at one recent conference in Geneva. 
It is a natural (or even mathematical) principle of making order. In 
human society, the main question is what the nature of the hierarchy is. 
Is it fixed and blocked by political, family, or economic reasons or 
open to newcomers? In the online world, you have hierarchy everywhere.  
How many followers do you have on Twitter or Facebook? How does your 
website rank on Google? The possibility that you may start your online 
business anywhere does not work easily in practice. Zuckerberg had to go 
to Silicon Valley and identify various hierarchies (venture capital, 
engineers, marketing) that helped him to make Facebook a great success. 
In many cases hierarchy is not explicit, but this does not mean that it 
does not exist. Paradoxically, in a way, governments are honest by 
making their hierarchies explicit (military, diplomatic and diplomatic 
ranks)?

Another modern mantra is the 'end of territoriality'.  You know the 
usual arguments that you can hear in IG parlance... the Internet is free 
from  territorial bonds, etc. Is it true? Not necessarily.  Our location 
can be easily identified via geo-location, GPS, and other devices. The 
fact that we can be ANYwhere (virtuality) does not mean that we can be 
NOwhere. And, when we are SOMEwhere we are more territorial in our 
online worlds than in our traditional worlds.

Should we revisit these - and other - mantras?

On 5/15/12 12:28 AM, David Allen wrote:
> This question - of what might be some new form of governance - is a 
> perennial for IGC.  We have circled around it, by now several times.
>
> To note some of points of discussion:
>
> From Wolfgang
> May 13, 2012 4:59:24 AM EDT
>> a body which is able to produce rough consensus
>
>
> Consensus implies legitimacy.  In the case of civil society, that 
> encompasses several billion folks.
>
> A handful of individuals, debating on a listserve, just are not - in 
> the end - able to proclaim, with any credibility, that consensus.
>
> Very much more to the point - aggregating all the many, many views is 
> one crux of the question.  As below.
>
>> hierarchical thinking of the 20th century. What we need is a network 
>> thinking for the 21st century
>
>
> Hierarchy is gone, network is in?
>
> Humans have been operating with social networks for thousands of 
> years, at the least.  Most decidedly there is nothing new underlying, 
> certainly not on account of a calendar system that by happenstance 
> turned a triple zero number, 2000 ...  Nor have the hierarchical 
> inclinations, also hard-wired into the genome, suddenly gone into 
> hibernation.  Evolution does not work that way.
>
> What could be new is some thinking that artfully understood, better, 
> how these weave together.  To address, notably, the aggregation of 
> views question.
>
> As indeed Parminder asks
> May 13, 2012 5:53:44 AM EDT
>> tell us clearly what would be the structure of this new mechanism, 
>> what functions will it perform, and how, what would be its outcomes 
>> and how will they be implemented.
>
>
>
> Then again from Wolfgang
>> CS was invited to WSIS, now we are here and we want to participate in 
>> Realpolitik. To give us a seat on the table
>
>
> On the one side, Realpolitik alerts that power is the underlying 
> issue. Those who have it - governments, particularly of the North; 
> increasingly BRIC countries et al,; several large private actors; 
> among others - will not be ceding that power without good reason.  As 
> the interminable discussion of EC illustrates.
>
> At the same time on the other side, the prospect for some new, more 
> suitable arrangements - as Wolfgang brings up - do turn it seems on an 
> appeal to “more democracy.”  A shibboleth that may, because its claims 
> are sound, be more than a rallying cry for change.  Power may actually 
> shift.
>
> A robust democracy, built from understanding the mix of hierarchy and 
> network, one that actually achieves legitimate aggregation of views - 
> in other words, this could be a democracy that actually moves toward 
> lofty goals.
>
>
> As Paul Lehto has said more than once, but once again here
> May 8, 2012 2:28:06 PM EDT
>> the "stakeholder" stuff can at most only be seen as an intermediate 
>> and transition-state to real democracy.
>
>
>
> WSIS Forum week, MAG, IGF consultations, EC the end of the week - 
> these will all take our time.  In the meantime these large questions 
> will not go away.
>
> David
>
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