Re: [ICANN-EU] Jeanette and other candidates (was Re: Snapshots)

[Christoph <cweber@dialup.nacamar.de>]

Hello,

Jeanette Hofmann wrote:
> > If you'd be sorry about the vanishing influence of engineers on
> > technology, you'd say so. You didn't. You aren't.
> 
> Of course I am not sorry. Why would I be sorry? Social elites always
> suffer when they have to give up some of their power ;-)

Hogwash. It's 'put the servants back to their place', thank you. 
'Ingenieure hält man sich' to quote some industry captain I happened 
to know. He was only half-joking - deep inside they mean it.

[...]
> You don't get my point. 

Don't misunderstand me - I don't doubt your motives. I just doubt the
outcome.

> It's not about arrogance, it's about giving users
> a say in the management of one of our most important infrastructures.
[...]
> In my view, the Internet is a public ressource. Nobody, neither
> corporations, engineers or governments can claim it to be theirs. This
> is what ICANN should be about: to develop structures and procedures
> that balance the opposing approaches towards the Net.

*snub* Been there, done that. I've seen such "structures and procedures"
in action. I can tell you how they will look like: there will be the
meetings
where all interests and stakeholders are represented: Consumers,
industry 
and trade assocíations, unions, governments, NGOs of all flavours, you
name it. 

And on that f** table where they meet, there will be only f** lawyers. 
Everyone will send a lawyer. In the background, on the 'staffer' chairs
you 
will find the occasional expert, or two, just in case his master
actually 
gets to a point where he has to talk facts and stop talking fluff.

But the lawyers will make it out among themselves. Brave new world.

Don't believe me ? Go look around. Take the medical profession, for 
instance. By virtue of student politics I was once involved in the 
reform of medical education. The most stunning thing was the 
abundance of lawyers and the scarcity of doctors in the debate.

Experts don't count. Lawyers do. 

Still don't believe ? Go visit your local city hall. Ask two 
Questions: In times of budget shortage, did you ever try to 
hire a fully academic trained lawyer for less than standard 
pay (2a/A13)? An Engineer or Computer Scientist ?

The first will just get you a puzzled look. How could they ?
The second will get you an "of course". Even today there are 
a number of cities and public institutions that try hiring 
seasoned IT specialists for a better sceretary's pay, bending
all rules and regulations.

Experts don't count. Lawyers do. 

> [...] all what we can do now is to strive for preserving 
> the freedom for heterogeneity  as it is embedded in the Net's 
> architecture.

"Resistance is futile."

You may be right. I dislike it nonetheless.


Regards

Christoph Weber-Fahr

P.S. How many lawyers are involved with ICANN ?