[governance] US hearing on International Proposals to Regulate the Internet

[William Drake]

Hi Rony

On May 28, 2012, at 11:38 AM, Koven Ronald wrote:

> Bill --
> 
> To be complete, it should be noted that David Gross headed the US Delegation at WSIS II in Tunism where he played a major role in reaching the compromise to create IGF as a forum for discussion of the issues on which no consensus could be reached in Tunis.

Yes, after initially expressing skepticism about IGF, the prospect of a summit failure helped turn State around (like ISOC and ICC).  And I did note the smile.
> 
> Sally Shipman was also in Tunis and was then on the staff of Amb. Gross.

Yes
> 
> Both have been sympathetic to civil society concerns and were involved in overcoming the efforts by other governmental delegations to exclude CS during the WSIS prepcom process.

Yes…well, at least with respect to being able to attend meetings, and FoE.  David and the Bush team were rather less responsive to many of other other ideas, e.g. on internationalizing authority over the root, having the US publicly commit not to use its leverage to try taking governments it's in conflict with off the net, scaling back the IRP wars, having an IGF that did more than hold annual conferences, actually meeting with civil society reps during prepcoms, summits, etc….and on and on.

But my main point was that hearing from the current ambassador about what the current administration is doing with respect to current coordination with other governments on a pending negotiation would be more useful than getting an outsider perspective "from one of ours."  But that's that's the way the Republican House rolls...
> 
> (There are many rooms in the house of the Lord.)

And even more in the houses of atheists..:-)

Cheers

 Bill
> 
> Bests, Rony Koven 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: William Drake <william.drake at uzh.ch>
> To: governance <governance at lists.cpsr.org>; Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org>
> Sent: Mon, May 28, 2012 11:21 am
> Subject: Re: [governance] US hearing on International Proposals to Regulate the Internet
> 
> Hi
> 
> On May 28, 2012, at 9:21 AM, Anriette Esterhuysen wrote:
> 
>> The distorted FCC reaction to talk of the ITU taking over and
>> 'regulating' the internet only sets serious discussion about
>> international cooperation, and rooting internet policy in existing
>> international agreements, back.
> 
> To be clear: the US House is under Republican control, so the selection of speakers is part of a larger effort to portray things as "the Obama administration is asleep at the wheel while the UN is moving to take over the Internet."  Robert McDowell is one of two Republican commissions on an FCC of five, and he is looking to make a name for himself via Wall St. Journal etc. pumping up UN black helicopter paranoias among the political "base".  When he's off the commission he'll get a good job somewhere and nice speaking fees.  But I wouldn't take his views as "the FCC reaction."  Dems on the commission may also have concerns about some of the WCIT proposals, and for good reason, but I've not seen them hyperventilating in the same manner.
> 
> David A. Gross is there because he was Bush's Ambassador at State.  Nice smile, but also pretty far to the right, and no formal role in US policy discussions.  Apparently the subcom chair saw no reason to hear from the person who's actually ambassador now and could relate what's happening both in the administration's planning process and in discussions with ITU members.
> 
> Sally Shipman Wentworth will be able to reflect on all the work ISOC's been doing deep diving into the proposed ITR revisions.  Her presentation will be the one serious one to watch.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Bill
> 
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