[governance] "technical community fails at multistakeholderism". really?

[John Curran]

On Oct 8, 2013, at 7:36 AM, Carlos A. Afonso <ca at cafonso.ca> wrote:

> If they meant that, why not say it so?

Well, so far you've heard myself, Raul, and Jari indicate it could have 
been phrased better (statements developed by multiple organizations 
sometimes suffer in the editing.)

> Dilma was far more courageous... ;)

Really?  By calling for _multilateral_ framework for governance and use 
of the Internet?  Isn't that fairly routine position for governments to take?
"The history of the twentieth century shows that forsaking multilateralism 
is a prelude to wars and the consequent human misery and devastation."
(Dilma Rousseff - 24 Sept 2013)

I'm not certain that advocating for the centuries-old model of "governments 
dealing with other governments" for the resolution of problems is exactly 
a bold and courageous approach. (I'd really like to believe that she meant
multistakeholder, but the seven uses of the word "multilateral" plus the 
above quote do make that a little difficult...)

We desperately need an updated model for Internet collaboration which 
provides for government participation, while at the same time protecting 
the voices of civil society and the private/technical/business sector.  This 
is not easy - we know that private sector alone doesn't necessarily lead to 
full consideration of public policy issues; we know that government and 
private sector can actually be worse in that aspect.  Governments talking 
to governments (multi-lateral) also is problematic, although we have begun 
to see tangible progress with multi-stakeholder involvement in some of these 
institutions following the Internet community lead.  The question before us
is whether we can maintain the openness and participatory governance
aspects of present Internet coordination (although to date private sector-led)
as governments become more involved, all while formalizing structures for 
civil society participation.   We have some advantages, as the Internet itself
provides collaboration tools that previously did not exist (remote participation,
collaborating editing/wikis, distributed polling, etc.) but we're still entering 
uncharted territory and there is enormous pressure to get this right.

/John

Disclaimers:  My own views.  Yes, this is hard, that's why its called "work".




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