[governance] Blogpost: Alternative "Best Practices" for the A4AI (to be renamed Alliance for an Accessible Internet)

[Mwendwa Kivuva]

If A4AI is not doing a good job, probably those with concerns can get into
the alliance and reform it, or create a parallel entity that will perform
according to their wishes.

The global south will only benefit if any criticism on effort that helps
drive policy towards universal access is followed by tangible but better
alternatives.

Let us remember this quote, which reigns supreme decades later :

*"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is
marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and
comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or
shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who
spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the
triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least
he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."*

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
- See more at:
http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/site/c.elKSIdOWIiJ8H/b.9297493/k.7CB9/Quotations_from_the_speeches_and_other_works_of_Theodore_Roosevelt.htm#.dpuf
On Mar 27, 2016 9:52 AM, "Nick Ashton-Hart" <nashton at consensus.pro> wrote:

> Dear Michael,
>
> May I suggest that in the first instance, before proposing to rewrite
> A4Ai’s entire mission and purpose, you and those interested could have a
> conversation with them about your concerns?
>
> I suspect that will get a better reception from presenting them with a
> redraft completely out of the blue, without having any dialogue.
>
> Regards, Nick
>
> On 26 Mar 2016, at 23:49, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> My original blogpost
> <https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/a4ai-who-could-oppose-a-more-affordable-internet-the-alliance-for-an-affordable-internet-a4ai-and-the-neo-liberal-stealth-campaign-to-control-the-internet-throughout-the-developing-world-and-make/>
>  examining the “Policy and Regulatory Best Practices” of the Alliance for
> an Affordable Internet (A4AI’s)  <http://a4ai.org/best-practices/>has
> generated some considerable discussion including on the InternetPolicy
> elist sponsored by the Internet Society <http://www.internetsociety.org/> (ISOC).
> In the course of that discussion a challenge was put forward by Bill Smith,
> a tech industry veteran, Board Member of ISOC and the “tech evangelist” for
> PayPal as follows (taken from a post to the InternetPolicy elist (Fri
> 2016-03-25 9:31 AM)
> *What is lacking in the discussion against A4AI, is a well-articulated
> alternative. Some bits and pieces may appear but they suffer from the same
> deficiencies attributed to A4AI’s principles, best practices, and policy
> positions – they are offered as fact with no substantiation.*
> *A4AI has what I consider a set of easily understandable principles, best
> practices, and policy positions. I suspect that when applied in practice,
> they will be effective in many circumstances. They may not be appropriate
> in all. (Think globally act locally.)*
> *What I haven’t seen are a similar set of principles, best practices, and
> policy positions from the non-neoliberal corner. Perhaps such a set could
> be presented to this list for consideration and debate.*
> This below is my response to this challenge (I have added additional
> comments by Brandt Dainow also a contributor to the InternetPolicy elist):
>
> https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/alternative-best-practices-for-the-a4ai-to-be-renamed-alliance-for-an-accessible-internet/
>
> http://tinyurl.com/zhejpvh
>
> M
>
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