IP: Interview with Ira Magaziner

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 10:24:26 -0400 To: anr-talk () anr org From: Izumi Aizu
<izumi () anr org>


Interview with Ira Magaziner


by Izumi Aizu Asia Network Research


(feel free to distribute)


May 12, 1998


I met with Ira Magaziner, Policy Advisor to President Clinton, yesterday at
his office in Washingon D.C. Here are the summary of the discussion.


According to Mr. Magaziner, series of events will happen related to
e-commerce and Internet Governance.


Friday this week, there will be joint-announcement with Japanese and US
governments on e-commerce etc. at the Birmingham Summit. Then president
Clinton  in Geneva on Monday at the WTO will propose duty-free cyberspace.
After that, revised proposal on domain name and Internet governance will be
released at early or middle of the next week. A week after that,
privacy-related activity will be also announced.


He could not reveal the content of new Governance proposal, or White Paper,
but was very confident that it will receive much wider support, both from
EU, Japan and other governments as well as Internet community including
CORE, ISOC, and others.


He sounded like that the new White Paper will leave more room for the
specifics to the new non-profit organizations to be decided, not US
Government deciding. He also emphasized that new proposal will have strong
legal base against expected law suits. By having US non-profit legal
status, which allows international activities including choice of
jurisdictions, with private non-profit sector standard making precedents
such as IEEE, UL, it will be more immune to anti-trust argument. He said
most of oppositions from EU government, for example, were based on
misunderstanding and thus with his discussion and new proposal, he is
confident to gain good understanding and support from them


He also is hoping to have more interaction with Asian Internet community or
other interested parties in the coming month to facilitate the
establishment of truly global mechanism. He is tentatively scheduled to
come and give a talk in Singapore, at CommunicAsia '98 conference on June
4, but could not finalize it due to other duty with President Clinton.
(Indian nuclear explosion is one sudden factor affecting this).


Although he is very optimistic, and both ISCO President Don Heath and
CORE/POC chair David Mahar also seemed positive, other Washington people I
met here in the past few days are still not so much so, with reservation -
until they really read the final wording. Even the new proposal have gained
broad-base consensus, it will not be easy to establish a new international
body for governance within a few month, technically. There's a lot of work
to do!


Mr. Magaziner is very open, and listens very well, and that is not that
often seen from typical Americans sometimes, some people admit. I agree. He
is a good listener. I hope his new proposal will meet many voices and
expectations well.




< < <  Izumi Aizu   <izumi () anr org>   > > > Principal, Asia Network
Research (ANR) Sdn. Bhd. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  ( http://www.anr.org)
associated with Institute for HyperNetwork Society, Oita & Tokyo
(http://www.hyper.or.jp) and GLOCOM, Tokyo ( http://www.glocom.ac.jp)


> > > WRITING THE HISTORY OF THE FUTURE <<<