[governance] Towards an Internet Social Forum

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 5/02/2015 3:20 pm, michael gurstein wrote:
> Unfortunately Jeremy, your "balanced framing" begs the most fundamental questions, which I, at least, have been asking for some specific answer for, for some time (this is at least the 3rd time that I have presented the following questions in one or another form).

Each time you've asked you've been answered, so I'm not sure that
anything I could say would satisfy you, even if I had the time to reply
at length which I don't.  So just some quick points.

> Perhaps now would be a good time for you or someone to actually give some detail on what is meant by:
> a. multstakeholder models--which ones, how are they structured, what are the internal/external accountability mechanisms etc.etc.--you know the normal things that people might expect to know if they are being asked to commit their and our futures to these "models"--or are we all now to give up these questions since the elites have decided that these matters are of interest and are seeming to be proceeding with or without the consent of the governed.

Many of the fundamentals are covered in the NETmundial principles, but
the operationalisation of these principles remains a work in progress. 
For ICANN that work has been ongoing 17 years, for the IGF it has been
10 years... but the Westminster system took about 300 years to develop
to where it is, so your demand for a comprehensive blueprint now seems a
bit unreasonable.  Having said that, a number of us including me have
put forward some quite specific proposals, which I can point you to. 
The NETmundial meeting itself also shows what becomes possible where the
political will is there.

> b. democratic representation--okay, now you have used the "D" word--what exactly do you mean and how does this fit into the above "models" (and please no vague hand waving about an equally undefined "participatory democracy"

There are reams of literature on this, have you read any of it?  Or for
an overview, see
http://igfwatch.org/discussion-board/a-civil-society-agenda-for-internet-governance-in-2013-internet-freedom-in-a-world-of-states-part-3. 
For the next IGF there is a proposal (on which I'm a advisor) to hold a
deliberative poll.  It doesn't mean that everyone in the world has to be
involved, it means that about 300 people who cover all significantly
affected perspectives should be involved.

> c.  "global Internet governance in which governments ... not a priori have the lead role"--who in the absence of governments then does have the lead role, how is their role determined, who decides who has the lead role in which circumstance, how (if at all) are those alternatively in the "lead role" to be held externally accountable, what are their internal processes of accountability in these alternative modalities, how is representitivity/inclusivity maintained/ensured (or perhaps it doesn't matter?) in the absence of some form of anchored democratic processes.

I posted about this yesterday in response to Parminder.

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Global Policy Analyst
Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://eff.org
jmalcolm at eff.org

Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161

:: Defending Your Rights in the Digital World ::

Public key: https://www.eff.org/files/2014/10/09/key_jmalcolm.txt
PGP fingerprint: FF13 C2E9 F9C3 DF54 7C4F EAC1 F675 AAE2 D2AB 2220
OTR fingerprint: 26EE FD85 3740 8228 9460 49A8 536F BCD2 536F A5BD

Learn how to encrypt your email with the Email Self Defense guide:
https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 244 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20150205/da878b37/attachment.sig>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t