[governance] Text of Parminder's input

[Garth Graham]

> On Dec 22, 2015, at 10:50 AM, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> ……  You say:  “the  governance  structuring  complex  adaptive  systems,  or  self-organizing systems  like  the  Internet,  is  internalized  or  distributed  among  the  elements  that  make  it  up.    
> The  parts  of  the  whole  system  all  contain  within  themselves  simple  rules  of  relationship  that  govern  the  structure  or  patterns  of  behavior  that  the  whole  expresses  in  the  world.    
>  
> I think that it is possible to see the arrangements you are describing above in some idealized misty past of the Internet (or perhaps more likely an idealized misty vision of what the Internet could and should have been), but the reality as seen and experienced in “this is 2015” is, as I’m expecting that you will agree, rather different.  
>  
> What we see is governments globally attempting desperately (and frequently successfully) to “govern” their portion of the Internet; efforts towards global governance regimes which by enshrining either a “presence” or an “absence” of “management” structures ensure in either case that the future Internet will be managed by forces which have little or nothing to do with your “complex adaptive systems”; and finally we have the rapid emergence of global transnational corporate driven “platforms” which in their mode and content of governance mirror, challenge and supersede national (and supra-national) structures of governance in support of private corporate interests.
>  
> You may wish for some sort of hidden hand as the ultimate governance dynamic of the Internet but I think it is rather more in the form of velvet gloves over (rapidly emerging if still to some degree emerging) fists of steel.

So you want me to play misty for you?  (Sorry, couldn’t resist).

Actually, rather than nostalgia for the good old days, my [vision?] is even darker than the one you paint.  In the context of a conventional framing of power and politics, yes, the forces you note are at play.  But, in the context of an effective response to climate change, one that plays towards sustainability and resilience, if we don’t consciously practice complex adaptive systems thinking then (to paraphrase Yeats), ecologies fall apart, the centre cannot hold.  The fabric that nets up the world is one of complex adaptive systems, of which the Internet is merely one. Community Informatics nailed it when it declared that the global was a federation of locals because, of course, from a complex adaptive systems view, so is everything else.  I am all too well aware that nation states and corporations don’t agree.  But I also believe that “civil society” is quite capable of assuming the mantle of social justice and democracy in a rush towards the same centralizing totalitarianism that is being sought by nation states and corporations.  The winning strategy remains grounded in the individual.  Connect (or cooperate), until the other defects, then compete until the other connects.  And, yes, all that does is restate the golden rule in systems terms.

GG

>  -----Original Message-----
> From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Garth Graham
> Sent: December 22, 2015 9:27 AM
> To: Internet Governance <governance at lists.igcaucus.org>
> Subject: Re: [governance] Text of Parminder's input
>  
> > On Dec 22, 2015, at 4:53 AM, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
> > 
> > On Friday 18 December 2015 10:19 PM, Garth Graham wrote:
> >>> On Dec 17, 2015, at 8:14 AM, anita <anita at itforchange.net> wrote:
> >>> Pl find the link to a video clip and the corresponding transcript here: 
> >>> http://www.itforchange.net/UNGA_WSIS10
> >>>  
> >> Parminder concludes:
> >>> …. left to itself the digital-network phenomenon will certainly be appropriated by the powerful and will result in an even more unequal and unfair world…
> >>> 
> >> Whereas I would conclude: Left to a "democratic mechanism for global governance of the Internet” the digital-network phenomenon will certainly be appropriated by the democratic mechanism’s representatives.  Centralizing the governance of a distributed system makes it far more subject to capture than by any other method.
> > 
> > …….. If you really what the know what is distributed, bottom-up and so on, go to the people's movements in different areas, and forms like people's assemblies and the World Social Forum, and ask them if they agree with the globalisation's language of distributed, polycentric etc when it is used to destroy legitimate policy spaces! I am doing nothing other than extend that some logic to the IG space, where this problem has taken an even more vicious form. 
>  
>  
> > From: Mawaki Chango <kichango at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [governance] Text of Parminder's input
> > Date: December 22, 2015 at 2:59:37 AM PST
> > 
> > …… The reluctance from some to apply the category of democracy to Internet governance stems from the limitations (and risks? dangers?) of democracy in their eyes. Is there a thoughtful - and as comprehensive as possible - articulation of those limitations, risks and/or dangers to be found somewhere? Do we think the two sets of concerns are irreconcilable?
>  
> For me, it’s not so much a question of reconciliation within existing frameworks as it is a question of reframing the question.  I have spent some time thinking about this.  One of my recent attempts at summary might serve to flesh out the cryptic 2 sentences I posted, even it’s not a direct response to the concerns raised by Mawaki Chango and Parminder:
>  
> Garth Graham. Cooperating community connections: a changing political reality, October 7,  2014:
> https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=49357134&preview=/49357134/49418555/connect.pdf
>  
> GG


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