[governance] Report on WCIT // Suggested Next Steps

[michael gurstein]

Suresh,

This is a typical trick being used for example in the current attempts to
discredit expert knowledge/research in the climate change discussions.
Informed interventions are countered by ill-informed (often "greenwashed")
assertions and the media for example, ill-advisedly looks for a happy medium
"between the extremes".

M

-----Original Message-----
From: Suresh Ramasubramanian [mailto:suresh at hserus.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2013 8:29 AM
To: michael gurstein
Cc: <governance at lists.igcaucus.org>
Subject: Re: [governance] Report on WCIT // Suggested Next Steps

Ah - that is just meeting an extreme point with a counterpoint from the
opposite extreme

The two of us (and possibly the more vocal advocates of 'the south' on this
caucus) are probably entirely the wrong people to draft a neutral and
unbiased position.

--srs (iPad)

On 02-Apr-2013, at 20:52, "michael gurstein" <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:

> Again, these are potentially empirical questions cast within an 
> ideological frame...
> 
> Well worth researching, but by parties rather more neutral than for 
> example, the proponents/beneficiaries of the policy positions implied 
> by your stream of argument).
> 
> FWIW I have had the opportunity to participate in some "expert" 
> discussions on related matters within the OECD and I've discussed some 
> of the limitations built into conventional approaches in much of the 
> research being produced in this area...
> http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/measuring-the-unmeasurable-in
> ternet
> -and-why-it-matters/
> 
> M
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org
> [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Suresh 
> Ramasubramanian
> Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2013 7:17 AM
> To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; Norbert Bollow
> Cc: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> Subject: Re: [governance] Report on WCIT // Suggested Next Steps
> 
> On 02-Apr-2013, at 18:57, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
> 
>> Which parts of these observed fears and concerns are real unsolved 
>> problems, and which parts are just fruits of rhetorical 
>> dramatizations and fears that would go away if the concerned people 
>> would simply inform themselves reasonably well?
>> 
> 
> The additional questions are bound to be - which of these observed 
> fears and concerns actually have other, entirely different, causes 
> including but not limited to -
> 
> 1. A closed / government monopoly economy, including expensive and 
> controlled internet and telecom access [the control might even exist 
> for political or censorship reasons in a relatively more open economy]
> 
> 2. A flight of capital, in particular intellectual capital, to other 
> countries, due to the lack of an enabling environment for business in 
> the country itself [such as just how many Indians and Chinese work for 
> Google and Facebook rather than setting up startups in India and 
> China]
> 
> 3. Other localized micro / macro economic factors, as well as enabling 
> factors including education, electricity, a stable and democratic 
> government ..
> 
> 4. How much of this "belief" is caused and fuelled by the people 
> believing this opposing "the north" and in particular the USA on 
> ideological or political grounds, to the extent that any news at all 
> in this area is interpreted with an ideological slant and selectively 
> skewed to fit whichever ideology the individual concerned holds to, using
the classic
> tools that a propagandist has at his or her disposal?   
> 
> The perpetrators of this last are not by and large not likely to 
> modify their behavior by "informing themselves well", though people 
> who they may influence could certainly benefit from alternate sources 
> of information and discourse.  I am aware that political and personal 
> beliefs will definitely influence thoughts and behavior but this goes 
> rather beyond that.  And an axiom of propaganda is that repeating 
> something patently false often enough, and unopposed, tends to lend even a
blatant canard a veneer of truth.
> 
> I welcome the thoughts of this caucus.
> 
> --srs
> 


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