WSIS hands ICANN some rope

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        WSIS hands ICANN some rope
Date:   Thu, 17 Nov 2005 03:05:25 -0500
From:   John R Levine <johnl () iecc com>
To:     David Farber <dave () farber net>



My take in the WSIS agenda, for IP if you want.


WSIS hands ICANN some rope

Months of political maneuvering have led up to the ITU WSIS meeting in
Tunis, with increasing political pressure to pry control of the Internet
from ICANN and the US government. Even if you grant that ICANN had the
control to give up (which it doesn't, but we'll talk about that some other
time), all the arguing about governance distracted from the original goal
of WSIS which was to improve Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) in the third world. The day before the meeting started, the
meeting's agenda appeared, cleverly phrased so that everyone can declare
victory even though nothing's changed, and they can get back to the real
work of WSIS.

The relevant parts of the agenda are in paragraphs 63 through 82 which
call upon the UN Secretary-General to convene the Internet Governance
Forum (IGF), with a long list of topics to address, meeting for the first
time in Athens probably in June 2006. Fans of international oversight can
point to this as the first step to true international control of the Net.
But fans of leaving things the way they are can point to paragraph 77
which clarifies that the IGF will be limited to blowing hot air:

  The IGF would have no oversight function and would not replace
  existing arrangements, mechanisms, institutions or organisations, but
  would involve them and take advantage of their expertise. It would be
  constituted as a neutral, non-duplicative and non-binding process. It
  would have no involvement in day-to-day or technical operations of the
  Internet.

So the coast is clear for ICANN, right? Not quite.

( read the rest at http://weblog.johnlevine.com )

Regards,
John Levine, johnl () iecc com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor
"A book is a sneeze." - E.B. White, on the writing of Charlotte's Web


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/