[governance] Perspectives (was Re: Fwd: And Now the Second Battle of the Internet)

[Norbert Bollow]

Chaitanya Dhareshwar <chaitanyabd at gmail.com> wrote:

> "Mapping"? More detail please Nobert, there's newbies (like me) here
> so not everyone may understand the technical terms... :)

Here's a quick attempt at explaining in somewhat more detail what I
meant:

Since a significant aspect of what has recently caused heated words and
hostility on this list seems to have been (a) misunderstandings and
invalid assumptions about viewpoint of other participants, and (b)
references to other participants' viewpoints that were understood by
others to be derogatory and/or otherwise offensive, I propose that it
would be helpful to increase our mutual understanding of what our
various viewpoints (I use this term broadly in this email, it is
intended to include what I have previously referred to as “perspectives”
and “interests”) are, e.g. by means of an online wiki that documents
many of them.

As mentioned recently, Sala and I have been discussing setting up a
wiki for the IGC which would give everyone with an igcaucus.org
account a personal homepage in relation to the IGC.

I might use that to note e.g. that my viewpoint is broadly a “social
liberal” one (this might be linked to a wiki page that briefly
explains what that means in the context of Internet governance). I
might add that my perspective is significantly shaped by having a
technical background, by living in a small European country which is not
part of the EU and which is going through uncomfortable experiences of
being put under severe pressure by more powerful countries, and by
having a Kenyan friend who is a pastor among poor people in Kenya.

The main part of the “mapping” exercise would be a wiki page that lists
the various broad categories of viewpoints and links to the IGC wiki
homepages of those who have chosen to self-identify with one of them.

The benefits of such a “map of viewpoints” would include
- making it easier to refer to viewpoints of IGC participants without
  risk of unintendedly sounding derogatory (after all if I have
  endorsed a particular label as referring to a kind of viewpoint that
  I share, it shouldn't be viewed as offensive when that label is then
  used in reference to the kind of views that I have been advocating.)
- making it reasonably easy to get some background understanding
  on arguments presented by another IGC participant - such background
  understanding can be provided e.g. by links to theoretical treatises
  on particular viewpoints, by explaining the particular perspectives
  and experiences that have significantly contributed to shaping a
  particular viewpoint, etc.
- documenting the breadth of viewpoints represented in IGC 

Of course it is possible that maybe multiple people all choose to
self-identify in the same way, even while fundamentally disagreeing
with each other. Such disagreements could also be documented in a “map
of civil society viewpoints and perspectives”.

Greetings,
Norbert

> 
> On Sat, Jun 15, 2013 at 6:46 AM, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
> 
> > McTim <dogwallah at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I would be glad if this happened, we could get a lot more done if
> > > people didn't try to divide us with first vs third world rhetoric.
> >
> > Some remarks have been devoid of any substantive content, while
> > others point (even if somewhat imprecisely) to real differences in
> > perspective and interests.
> >
> > A mapping exercise in regard to these different perspectives and
> > interests might be helpful - provided that we are able to agree on
> > the basic premise that everyone has the right to make their own
> > decision on what perspective they choose to adopt.
> >
> > Greetings,
> > Norbert

-- 
Recommendations for effective and constructive participation in IGC:
1. Respond to the content of assertions and arguments, not to the person
2. Be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you accept

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