Message-ID: <19990702181258.AAB16502@LOCALNAME> Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 15:14:18 +0000 From: Kerry Miller <mailto:kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca> Subject: ICANN Watch News Site (fwd) To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
For anyone trying to inform themselves where the Internet per se fits in the larger scope of human /cultural/ economic development (i.e. beyond its 'natural' function as a medium of information exchange), http://www.icann.org provides precious little to go on.http://www.icannwatch.org helps to build such a perspective, and suggest that blind faith that the technology will 'govern' itself or 'automatically' bestow equity on its beneficiaries, is as misplaced in this case as any other (Im sure Devel-L participants can think of plenty to point to.)
Nor will ICANN determine the entire net by any means, but it covers a major portion, and will set the pattern for other administrative entities (thinking of ccTLDs and their relation to their nominal host countries). But if 'development' means anything, it is that the broadest field of comprehension and determination should be at the *beginning of any process, not after a few self-defined specialists have decided what's best for everyone.
Very little of the Internet governance structure is yet in place, but even those few pieces strongly suggest that broad participation is not high on the agenda. By the same token, any consciousness- raising one can do at this point can be more effective than protests and complaints (to whom?) will be at any later time. 'Done deals' exist only because we stand by and let them be done.
kerry
------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date sent: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 07:35:48 -0300 Send reply to: Universal Access Canada <mailto:UA-C@CCEN.UCCB.NS.CA> From: Michael Gurstein <mailto:mgurst@CCEN.UCCB.NS.CA> Subject: [UA-C] [DW] ICANN Watch News Site (fwd) To: mailto:UA-C@CCEN.UCCB.NS.CA
I don't know if anyone with an Internet policy related position in Ottawa is monitoring the UA-C list... Casual observation suggests not...
What is most likely is that Internet policy in Ottawa [and other national capitols] is being set by a very small number of those with a rather (narrow) technical or commercial set of understandings, while those with broader political/civil society knowledge will make a contribution where they feel it necessary but they lack the technical knowledge or the technical advice to have much influence.
This is extremely dangerous...
Note the below and the information available on the identified web-site. David Farber is a very distinguished professor of Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania and a frequent advisor to the White House and the US Congress, David Post is a professor of Internet Law at Georgetown University and an advisor to the Electronic Freedom Foundation, and Michael Froomkin is also a Law Professor and a former member of the ICANN advisory board. Take a look at what these folks are saying about ICANN and it's likely future significance!
An implication of their discussion is that decisions concerning Internet governance are being made and structures being put in place at an overwhelming speed. These developments are occuring at such a rapid rate and within such arcane technical spheres that the traditional policy processes are not capable of keeping up even in the US, and are being left defacto and by default to non-publicly accountable bodies such as ICANN.
(As an aside if the US's processes can't keep up with all of their insider knowledge and experience, what of the policy processes in the rest of the world?... How are the interests of the global citizenry to be protected when in many cases, at best only a handful of techies even understand the technical issues involved? {How can there not be] long term social/political/economic policy or governance implications?
[...] What is needed is not an anti-US position, but rather a thoughtful policy stance and on-going policy review and development process that recognizes that the Internet and its' long-term governance requires a perspective which reflects the diversity of interests globally. And particularly one that includes an accommodation to and incorporation of the long term and diverse needs of global civil society and of the entire range of countries with their highly divergent economic and technical "challenges".
Is anyone in Ottawa listening?
Mike Gurstein
------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date sent: Tue, 29 Jun 1999 06:36:59 -0400 To: mailto:ip-sub-1@admin.listbox.com From: Dave Farber <mailto:farber@cis.upenn.edu> Subject: IP: New Web Site to Monitor ICANN Send reply to: mailto:farber@cis.upenn.edu
>Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 12:44:38 -0400
>To: mailto:farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (Dave Farber)
>From: David Post <mailto:Postd@erols.com>
>
>New Web Site to Monitor ICANN
>
>Check out http://www.icannwatch.org/
>
>Edited by David Post, Michael Froomkin and Dave Farber, ICANN Watch will
>serve as a forum for understandingof, and informed debate about,
>ICANN's role in managing the Domain Name System.
>
>Reorganization of the Domain Name System, far from being an arcane
>technical detail of Internet engineering, is a pivotal event in the
>history of the Internet.
>
>Whoever controls the DNS will be subject to immense pressure to stray
>far beyond any limited technical functions because the domain name
>system is the one place where enforceable global Internet policy can be
>promulgated without any of the messy enforcement and jurisdictional
>problems that bedevil ordinary law-making exercises on the Net.
>Businesses, which now realize the huge economic stake they have in this
>medium, and governments, which have spent the last few years worrying
>about how they would ever get back their taxing and regulatory
>authority over Internet transactions, will view ICANN as the means to
>impose their particular vision on Internet users worldwide.
>
>With so much at stake, how can we be assured that ICANN will be able to
>resist the pressure that will be brought to bear upon it? Where are the
>checks on the new corporation's exercise of its powers? How can all of
>those with a stake in the Internet's future i.e., all of us -- be
>assured that ICANN will exercise its powers in the best interests of
>the Internet community as a whole, rather than on behalf of one
>particular faction or another?
>
>ICANN Watch will serve as a forum for understanding and informed debate
>about the implications of ICANN's activities. We have no particular
>viewpoint to push or axes to grind; we will offer commentary and
>criticism from a wide variety of different perspectives, guided only by
>our belief in the power of ideas and informed discussion and debate to
>shape events and institutions.
>
>We hope you'll check it out.
>
>David Post
>