[governance] Internet as a commons/ public good

parminder parminder at itforchange.net
Thu Apr 25 02:37:41 EDT 2013


I am happy to add at the end

Internet must also be promoted (or some better word) as a vehicle (?) of 
free expression and for free flow of information, knowledge and ideas. 
Subject to wordsmith-ing..

However, at this point I think we need to perhaps put a stop to further 
expanding the desirable characteristics of the Internet and 
corresponding policy objectives. Otherwise it will become an unending 
process.

parminder


On Thursday 25 April 2013 10:15 AM, Izumi AIZU wrote:
> Hi, I also came late to this round of exchanges, but now have a simple 
> question.
>
> In the current version, there is no mention about the "free flow of 
> information
> (and knowledge and/or ideas) nor freedom of speech/press/assembly.
>
> If there have already been good discussion about these values most civil
> society proponents subscribe to, then fine. But if not, I think we 
> should address
> these in some way.
>
> izumi
>
>
>
>
>
> 2013/4/25 Mawaki Chango <kichango at gmail.com <mailto:kichango at gmail.com>>
>
>     Folks, let us not sound like WCIT deliberations... and be stuck on
>     the order of words or their esthetics, if not their politics.
>     I see nothing wrong with McTim's formulation and am not sure what
>     positive difference the latest change proposed by Parminder (on
>     this specific phrase) makes, while it slows down the rhythm of
>     reading and maybe the comprehension.
>
>     "through open, bottom-up, transparent, participatory democratic
>     processes involving all stakeholders". [McTim]
>
>     vs.
>
>     "through due democratic processes, that are open and transparent,
>     and involve all stakeholders." [Parminder]
>
>     Or would the following satisfy all parties? "... through open,
>     bottom-up, transparent, participatory and due democratic processes
>     involving all stakeholders". If so please (Parminder) go ahead and
>     add.
>
>     Furthermore...
>
>     *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? /*
>
>     *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? /*
>
>     I'm in violent agreement with Parminder's earlier response to the
>     above. You know Milton, as well as. I do that once first movers
>     settle in, they tend to foreclose the opportunities for potential
>     newcomers by all sorts of tactics, whether directly or indirectly.
>     Left to their own devices, things become naturally skewed towards
>     entrenched interests while raising entry barriers and stifling the
>     potential for innovations, etc. As has already been said, this is
>     about re-adjusting the scale and striking again a healthy balance
>     between the two ends in order to maintain and foster the creative
>     combination you're talking about.
>
>     As to the question about determining the global commons and global
>     public good dimensions and for the sake of simplicity, I suggest
>     we maintain the same expression to mean the same thing wherever
>     that thing need to be expressed. So let's drop "dimensions" repeat
>     again "global commons and global public good character".
>
>     Re. the following proposition that has been dropped: "While the
>     design principles and policies that constitute its governance
>     should ensure its stability, functionality and security, they must
>     also aim at..." the reason why I put this in earlier is that I
>     remember one of us stating that, in a sense, the stability,
>     functionality and security may be (some of) the salient dimensions
>     of the public good-ness of the internet as opposed to the internet
>     itself in the technical sense. That idea started generating some
>     agreement and no opposition. Now I observe that the reason why it
>     has been dropped was that we were hesitant using a prescriptive
>     tense but instead used the indicative present tense, to which
>     someone objected that the internet *is* not stable nor secure (or
>     something along those lines.) Now that we have clarify the tense
>     and the intent, and keeping in mind that that phrase is about the
>     principles guiding the *governance* of the internet but not the
>     internet itself, perhaps the basis for dropping that sentence
>     should not hold any longer. If you think otherwise and believe
>     that proposition does still not belong here, please do let us
>     know. For now I will put it back in because I think that's the
>     logical thing to do, but please be reassured, I'm not making a
>     religion out of it.  I have also added a variation of the same as
>     option in square brackets in the version below (please not that
>     ICANN always refers to their mandate, particularly the clauses
>     mentioning the need to maintain stability and security, when
>     making policy... so that's a fact.)
>
>     And lastly, I feel there's something too vague about the last
>     proposition:
>
>     *... we urge the preservation and enhancement of the Internet's
>     global commons and public good dimensions."*
>     *//*
>     Shouldn't we try to be specific at on one of the following two
>     things: either who we are urging or at least the framework where
>     the preservation and enhancement is being promoted or needs to
>     take place.
>
>
>     *"We recognise the Internet to be a global, end-to-end, 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
>     Internet's governance should be derived through **open, bottom-up,
>     transparent, participatory democratic processes involving all
>     stakeholders. Such principles and policies must aim at**ensuring
>     its stability, functionality and security as well as [or: While
>     such ***principles and policies strive to **ensure stability,
>     functionality and security of the Internet, they must also 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 that the governance of the
>     ***Internet* promote the preservation and enhancement of the
>     Internet's global commons and public good character."
>     *
>     Mawaki
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>     On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 2:28 PM, Garth Graham
>     <garth.graham at telus.net <mailto:garth.graham at telus.net>> wrote:
>
>         On 2013-04-24, at 12:10 AM, Norbert Bollow wrote:
>
>         > Governance of the epiphenomenon has always been primarily
>         through the processes of parliamentary democracy that shape
>         the laws that govern
>         > democratic societies;
>
>
>         Not quite.  Inge Kaul finds the standard definition of public
>         goods that assumes the sovereignty of nation states in
>         regulation to be of “limited practical-political value:”
>
>         “The shifts between private and public thus reflect greater
>         shared concern for the public domain among all the main
>         actors—the state, businesses, civil society organizations, and
>         households—and for what others expect of them and how their
>         private activities affect others. A wider arena, and probably
>         a new era, of publicness have emerged.” (1)
>
>         She redefines the definition “to require public goods to be
>         inclusive (public in consumption), based on participatory
>         decision-making (public in provision) and offering a fair deal
>         for all (public in the distribution of benefits).”(2).  She
>         sees that, in spite of their legislative and coercive powers,
>         more than nation states are involved in addressing the
>         problems of undersupply and market failure.  She sees a need
>         to develop, “a more systematic approach to public policy
>         partnerships.”(3).  In her terms, Internet governance as a
>         public good could be viewed as emerging “against the wishes of
>         the state.” (4).
>
>         “Goods often become private or public as a result of
>         deliberate policy choices. That is why consideration should be
>         given to expanding the definition—to recognize that in many if
>         not most cases, goods exist not in their original forms but as
>         social constructs, largely determined by policies and other
>         collective human actions. According to this revised
>         definition, public goods are nonexclusive or, put differently,
>         de facto public in consumption.” (5)
>
>         “Public goods are not just market failures, and they are not
>         merely state-produced goods. The public and private domains
>         exist on their own, beyond states and markets. …. It can even
>         be argued that the state and the market are part of the public
>         domain: they are both public goods.” (6).
>
>         Personally, I find that phrase “public policy partnerships,”
>         to be a bit more euphonious and helpful than the mouthful
>         “multi-stakeholderism."
>
>         GG
>
>         (1). Inge Kaul and Ronald U.Mendoza. Advancing the Concept of
>         Public Goods. In: Inge Kaul, Pedro Conceicao, Katell Le
>         Goulven and Ronald U. Mendoza, editors. Providing Global
>         Public Goods: Managing Globalization. Oxford University Press,
>         2002. 88-89. P78.
>         http://web.undp.org/globalpublicgoods/globalization/pdfs/KaulMendoza.pdf
>
>         (2). Inge Kaul. Public Goods: Taking the Concept to the 21st
>         Century. Paper prepared for the Auditing Public Domains
>         Project, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, York University,
>         Toronto, 2001. 3.
>         http://www.yorku.ca/drache/talks/pdf/apd_kaulfin.pdf
>
>         (3). Inge Kaul. 16
>
>         (4). Inge Kaul. 9.
>
>         (5). Kaul – Mendoza. 80-81.
>
>         (6). Kaul – Mendoza. 88.
>
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> -- 
>                      >> Izumi Aizu <<
> Institute for InfoSocionomics, Tama University, Tokyo
> Institute for HyperNetwork Society, Oita,
> Japan
> www.anr.org <http://www.anr.org>

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