[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: [atlarge-discuss] 006 Deciding Name for Organisation
Monday, August 12, 2002 * 8:46 AM EDT USA
HEAR! HEAR!
(Parliamentary speaking, of course.)
/s/ Joey
At 01:59 AM 8/12/2002 -0400, espresso@e-scape.net wrote:
BUT I see another role for us which is no less important: to demonstrate
how a democratic global community of Internet users can organize the
grassroots electoral process needed to ensure that Internet governance is
transferred to and remains in responsible hands -- that is, in the hands
of people who see administration of the Internet as a sacred trust rather
than an opportunity for commercial control and personal empire-building,
and who are directly answerable to the people who elect them.
Anyway, one thing I am sure of: a broadbased grassroots organization
sticking strictly to an ICANN-set agenda is extremely unlikely to happen,
and I can't see reading the equivalent of a book a day in list postings
plus doing a lot of volunteer work to try to get one going. If we can't
define our goals in terms the average reasonable Internet user can
comprehend and relate to, the resulting organization will be far from
representative of the world even if it does get 100,000 members from the
techie community.
----------
Full text of original message
----------
At 01:59 AM 8/12/2002 -0400, espresso@e-scape.net wrote:
At 21:32 -0700 2002/08/09, Bruce Young wrote:
>I agree. Keep tightly focused on our core concerns, which for now parallel
>ICANNs. We'll have plenty of time to expand our scope once we have the
>membership to support it!
What we have here, I think, is a classic chicken vs. egg argument.
If our "core concerns" are defined narrowly -- primarily in terms of
ICANN, DNS administration, licencing of registrars, etc. -- the vast
majority of the population (including myself) will have little reason to
wish to devote a lot of time to this initiative.
If our "core concerns" are defined too broadly, we'll be deluged with
members who will press to have energy directed towards digital divide
issues, questions of governance by unelected supranational
bodies, questions about infrastructure being left to the private sector,
and lord knows what else... and who won't know or care what a root server
is, let alone who owns it or whether it's properly backed up and protected.
I would place myself somewhere in the middle in the argument: I may be
firmly convinced in my own mind that the egg comes first but I do
recognize that the chicken is required to make more.
That is to say, I see one of our prime roles is to critique the way ICANN
was set up, the way it set out to "fulfill" its mandate in PR terms but
not in reality, the way it has now eliminated even that token effort while
claiming exclusive rights over the Internet which were never legally given
to it, etc.
BUT I see another role for us which is no less important: to demonstrate
how a democratic global community of Internet users can organize the
grassroots electoral process needed to ensure that Internet governance is
transferred to and remains in responsible hands -- that is, in the hands
of people who see administration of the Internet as a sacred trust rather
than an opportunity for commercial control and personal empire-building,
and who are directly answerable to the people who elect them.
Personally, I do not believe this can be done by encompassing only those
who are already working in the ICT industries or interested specifically
in the technology for its own sake.
If we believe in a democratic Internet, it makes no sense to hand the
control over it to what is, in effect, merely a larger technological elite
than the one ICANN is drawn from... and probably one with no better
understanding of the global social and political issues which must be
addressed if the Internet is to be a public good rather than an
exploitable product. We would need a much broader base of support, which
means taking on an educational function: teaching the "world at large"
what Internet governance is and why it matters, actively helping Internet
users to organize themselves and speak collectively about what they need
from the Net, etc.
That's a MUCH bigger job than merely countering ICANN's position on
various issues or trying to elect people to work from within the existing
system of powerless committees whose recommendations can be safely
ignored. But if we are not prepared to take that on, I suspect the most
productive thing those in this group can do is to focus on educating their
own elected government representatives to the issues and trying to form
national or regional pressure groups which might have some impact on U.S.
government policy.
Anyway, one thing I am sure of: a broadbased grassroots organization
sticking strictly to an ICANN-set agenda is extremely unlikely to happen,
and I can't see reading the equivalent of a book a day in list postings
plus doing a lot of volunteer work to try to get one going. If we can't
define our goals in terms the average reasonable Internet user can
comprehend and relate to, the resulting organization will be far from
representative of the world even if it does get 100,000 members from the
techie community.
Sorry if this makes me a wet blanket but I'm over 50 and only a semi-geek
so I'd probably want to put my own energies into something else of more
use to the rest of the world, like making sure that they can have
affordable,uncensored access to news and information from around the world
and the right to speak their own minds.
Regards,
Judyth
##########################################################
Judyth Mermelstein "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
Montreal, QC <espresso@e-scape.net>
##########################################################
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once
they have exhausted all other alternatives." (Abba Eban)
##########################################################
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: atlarge-discuss-unsubscribe@lists.fitug.de
For additional commands, e-mail: atlarge-discuss-help@lists.fitug.de