[governance] Internet as a commons/ public good

Tue Apr 23 21:34:49 EDT 2013

On Wednesday 24 April 2013 05:32 AM, Ian Peter wrote:
> *From:* Milton L Mueller <mailto:mueller at syr.edu>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, April 24, 2013 8:43 AM
> *To:* governance at lists.igcaucus.org 
> <mailto:governance at lists.igcaucus.org>
> *Subject:* RE: [governance] Internet as a commons/ public good
>
> *We recognise the Internet to be a global network of networks 
> comprised of computing devices and processes, and an emergent and 
> emerging social reality. In that sense, it is an intricate combination 
> of hardware, software, protocols, and human intentionality enabling 
> new kinds of social interactions and transactions, brought together by 
> a common set of design principles, and policies established through 
> due democratic processes. ***
>
> */[Milton L Mueller] assuming that historical accuracy matters, and 
> depending on what “policies” one is referring to, I don’t think 
> “democratic” process was involved in the origin of the internet at 
> all. The IETF developers were meritocratic, not democratic. /*
>
> */IP – have to agree with Milton. Tnere is no historic democratic 
> processes./*
>

(Parminder) Agree. It should instead be '....policies, that should be 
established by due democratic prcoess". BTW, thanks for both of you for 
confirming that historically there is no due democratic process :)

> *//*
>
> *//*
>
> *The design principles and policies that constitute its governance 
> ensure its stability, functionality and security, and aim at 
> preserving and enhancing the global commons and global public good 
> character of the Internet the combination of which has made previous 
> innovations possible. Therefore, in the face of the growing danger for 
> the Internet experience to be reduced to closed or ***
>
> */[Milton L Mueller] yes, but they are also, and should be also, aim 
> at preserving and enhancing the private good aspects of the Internet. 
> As the success of the  internet rests on a creative combination of 
> both, why are we emphasizing only one aspect of this? /*
>

(Parminder).
>
> */IP. It is not secure, and I believe its functionality is somewhat 
> basic. I’d go straight to  the global commons stuff and skip the first 
> part./*
>

(Parminder) Agree.
>
> *//*
>
> *//*
>
> *proprietary online spaces, we urge that the preservation and 
> enhancement of the Internet's global commons and public good dimensions***
>
> */[Milton L Mueller] what are these dimensions? Why not specify them? 
> Why not also recognize that we should not interfere with the 
> innovation and creativity that has come from affording entrepreneurs 
> and individuals to experiment and innovate with new private services? /*
>

(Parminder) Becuase we are not aiming at completeness of a definition 
here, but making a core advocacy principle/ statement for the Caucus 
stating which direction  and side in the current evolution of the 
Internet the caucus will like to weight on. And isnt private property 
being over 'protected' already - which as the last line says 'is the 
problem', See for instance the one global 'Principles on Internet policy 
making' <www.oecd.org/dataoecd/40/21/48289796.pdf>that authoritatively 
exist today, those developed by the OECD. The document was criticised by 
civil society for its intellectual property (IP) focus The document 
lists its policy objectives as "the protection of privacy, security, 
children online, and intellectual property, as well as the reinforcement 
of trust in the Internet " . There is no mention of any egalitarian 
political economy objective, which  of course is understandable coming 
from a club of the richest countries. IP is mentioned 15 times in the 
document and commons/ public goods (and we are assuming some such 
character of the Internet does exist) not once.

Also, we now have IETF seeking to issue an RFC focussing on the market 
but not commons aspect of the Internet as primary. Even W3C is coming up 
with an HTML extension standard specification that caters to the demands 
of IP owner for greater IP protection.....

One simply thinks that more than enough is happening on the private/ 
property side and hardly anything on the commons/ public side. In the 
circumstances, it is for a civil society group to step in as we are 
trying to do to emphasize the commons/ public gods side of the Internet 
and the need to protect and foster it.

I would also appeal to others who think that such a statement on 
commons/ public goods nature of the Internet should be adopted by the 
caucus as a basic advocacy principle, inter alia to preface our 
submissions to various bodies, may chip in at this stage. Of course also 
those who have different views are welcome to speak up. But let us close 
it one way or the other. Thanks Riaz for bringing this back to the 
group's attention.

parminder

> *//*
>
> */IP. My somewhat reduced version would then be/*
>
> *//*
>
> *We recognise the Internet to be a global network of networks 
> comprised of computing devices and processes, and an emergent and 
> emerging social reality. In that sense, it is an intricate combination 
> of hardware, software, protocols, and human intentionality enabling 
> new kinds of social interactions and transactions, brought together by 
> a common set of design principles. *The design principles and policies 
> that constitute its governance aim at preserving and enhancing the 
> global commons and global public good character of the Internet the 
> combination of which has made previous innovations possible. 
> Therefore, in the face of the growing danger for the Internet 
> experience to be reduced to closed or ***proprietary online spaces, we 
> urge the preservation and enhancement of the Internet's global commons 
> and public good dimensions.*
>
> *//*
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>      governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> To be removed from the list, visit:
>      http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
>
> For all other list information and functions, see:
>      http://lists.igcaucus.org/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

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20130424/6b7cd867/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/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