[governance] China's next-generation internet is a world-beater - tech - 10 March 2013 - New Scientist

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 13/03/13 13:19, parminder wrote:
> In fact, I am often deeply touched by the deep value based work that
> goes on in the multilateral systems, for instance what I saw recently
> at a ECOSOC committee working on access to scientific knowledge. Such
> kind of work stands out even more when seen against the open and
> blatant private interest based discussions and deal making that mark
> the so called loosely structured private governance systems that
> dominate Internet governance.
>
> What is happening at the larger social-structural level, and which I
> consider as the greatest threat to democracy, is a clear move from
> public governance, based on social contract, to private governance,
> based on private, interest-based, contracts. And the shift is rather
> systemic.

Not too long ago, Alejandro attacked me on an ISOC list over something
that I had posted to the governance list, so I'm now going to return the
favour and repost something that he recently posted to the ISOC list,
which I think exemplifies the mindset that you are referring to:

> 4. Looking forward, we will have the WTPF and the Plenipot, and a number of other fora which are either already planned or in the making. Some of them are not strictly under the ITU umbrella, like the IGF; others are outside, like the OECD's reports and meetings. The Internet community must see these as bumps (sometimes tall hurdles!!) on the road to our single goal: keeping the Internet open, interoperable, end-to-end, able to evolve, and as a basis for permissionless innovation. Internet Governance must continue to evolve with the full range of stakeholders taking part and avoiding all excess attempts to control the Internet for a single party, be it political or private. 
>
> 5. To that end we must continue to strengthen and make widely known the work of ISOC, the IETF, ICANN, the RIRs, the ccTLDs, MAAWG, APWG and the many other - existing or emerging - bodies and mechanisms that stem from the Internet community. 

So here we have it that only the "bodies and mechanisms that stem from
the Internet community" are entitled to participate in global
norm-setting, and that "other fora like the IGF" are to be "seen as
bumps on the road".  A very telling observation, and one that goes far
to explain the persistence of Alejandro and his colleagues in
constraining the development of the IGF.

Meanwhile, as Michael's link to Commissioner McDowell's speech showed,
even he, underneath the usual crackpot fear-mongering, did acknowledge
that the IGF would need to develop if it were to provide an alternative
forum than the ITU to which developing countries could turn to address
their concerns.

Just wondering how long it will take for the technical community to
realise that their little universe of Internet community bodies is not,
and can never be, the be-all and end-all of Internet governance, and
that they can't sweep away intergovernmental processes (especially
multi-stakeholder ones) as just "bumps in the road"...

-- 

*Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers*
Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
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