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

[Nick Ashton-Hart]

On 13 Mar 2013, at 09:42, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:

> On Wednesday 13 March 2013 01:31 PM, Nick Ashton-Hart wrote:
>> <snip>
>> I did, indeed - and I noted that many historians took issue with many aspects of the storyline too. Even Lincoln admitted that freeing the slaves was a deliberate policy choice which helped increase the manpower available to the North while causing disruption in the South due to the incentive it gave to the slaves to rebel and/or run away. 
>> 
>> All this does not diminish the achievement or the statesmanship - but it perfectly illustrates my point, that major shifts in human legal frameworks are preceded by major shifts in society or general warfare - not anticipated by them.
> 
> 
> 1. Enough structural changes have happened because of the Internet, and the directions of more are relatively clear, for it to be what the European Commission's Vice President a few years back called as the emergence of a 'constitutional moment' in relation to IG. Council of Europe held a workshop at an IGF with ' 'constitutional moment' in its title. 

I do not honestly see that there's anything like a sufficient consensus that this is true globally.

> 
> 2. Enough number of times historically big political texts got done in anticipation,  and in fact led to shaping of societies, as some may have followed events.

When? Honestly, sitting here (perhaps without enough coffee) I cannot think of any that have stood the test of time.

> 3. It is not only an issue of what generally happens, but what is desirable; do you really think that in global IG space political agreements should follow crises rather than anticipate them? Civil society takes up forwarding looking issues, positions and roles, it is not just in the business of cynical historical interpretations that deny our collective agency, and general good nature.

I don't think I'm being cynical but rather pragmatic and as I have said before, civil society's willingness to push the other parts of society to think big, be bold, and be optimistic are wonderful and to be encouraged. What I would say is: concentrate on how to make a real, practical difference in people's lives. Expending enormous effort to create new bodies to debate things, in my opinion, rarely accomplishes that objective.

I also don't see any crisis coming that needs to be anticipated. Are there practical improvements to participation in IG that can be made? Yes, there always are in every area of policy. Personally, it seems to me that persuading national and regional governments of the value of the Internet in social and economic terms, and getting them to create policies that are actually pro-people and that encourage the Internet to develop along those lines is likely to bear a lot more fruit for real people than creating UN processes to talk will.

> 
> parminder 
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