[governance] A different frame

[Barry Shein]

 > > <https://johnc1912.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/a-different-way-of-looking-at-things/%20> from 

Does anyone actually believe this? That the development of the
internet avoided political questions?

I've been involved with the internet since the 1970s and it always
seemed to me every new technology raised political and rights
questions almost to the point of tears.

The author gives an example of an IETF discussion about determining
location from browsers and how when possible misuse was raised by him
the participants shrugged him off, not our concern, he surmised.

It's not that they refused to consider the possible negative
implications. It's that technology tends to progress in parallel to
such considerations.

You can't just rathole every technical discussion with possible
negative implications any more than it would be appreciated if I, a
rather technical person, would rathole discussions on a list like this
with technical discourse. Most of you wouldn't even survive the hail
of acronyms any more than technical people could survive yours.

You'd get bored to the point of irritation or apathy, we'd make no
progress, the number of people present with expertise to judge whether
technical proposals were feasible is low in density here, and the
organization of the discussion is not suited to the convergence of
technical ideas.

I regularly see comments made here that indicate technical naivete but
then I try to refocus my mind on the more political aspect being
expressed rather than, analogous to the author, interrupt with
technical improvements or insights.

Look at what happened last week when I simply tried to point out how
the layers of the net are actually managed as opposed to the truncated
block-diagram fantasies many seem to work from.

The subject of the comment ignored me, sent a maverick who tried to
answer with a snarky two-word reply, and otherwise...silence (other
than a few if I may say applause lines sent privately to me.)

Trust me, technical people reading this list are as flabbergasted as
the author tries to express.

Rather than trying to draw such us vs them / tribalistic distinctions
-- my two-cent summary of that blog post -- perhaps it would be better
if we tried to work on these problems together?

This is a very complex interdisciplinary subject area, much like arms
control as one analogy. You're not going to make it by driving off or
trivializing people with a different skill set and focus.

-- 
        -Barry Shein

The World              | bzs at TheWorld.com           | http://www.TheWorld.com
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD        | Dial-Up: US, PR, Canada
Software Tool & Die    | Public Access Internet     | SINCE 1989     *oo*

-------------- 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