Re: U.N. conference ponders Internet's future

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Lee McKnight" <lmcknigh () syr edu>
Date: November 25, 2007 11:29:04 PM EST
To: <dfarber () cs cmu edu>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:  U.N. conference ponders Internet's future

Dave,

I was at the IGF meeting as well, and flew down actually on the same
flight as my old pal George; I saw the meeting somewhat differently than
either the prior report or George's.

First, I agree IGF is definitely a place for talking and discussion; and
ICANN was indeed a topic of some discussion. It would help if ICANN got
over the hyper-defensiveness born out of its own growing pains, but
that's a separate topic.

Second, on the Brazilian position, I interpret that as playing to the
domestic audience/ tv soundbites; the surprise would be if the Brazilian
government came out saying positive thing about an entity tied to one
government, namely the US.
Anyway, not a serious threat to ICANN, ISOC, or anyone else on the net
in my opinion - and I know Brazil well, visiting most years, as my wife
and kids are all Brazilians as well as US citizens.

Third, re the Russians, that too sounds like domestic politics on the
world stage to me, no imminent threat. Bashing the US
adminsitration/Bush administration is a popular pastime here in the US,
noone shold be surprised the rest of the world vents too when they have
a chance.

Fourth, mainly IGF is about workshops on a wide range of issues, I
encourage folks interested to view the agneda, tapes and docs. And
consider participating in IGF III next year in India.

(for IP if you wish)

Lee



Prof. Lee W. McKnight
School of Information Studies
Syracuse University
+1-315-443-6891office
+1-315-278-4392 mobile
> > > dfarber () cs cmu edu 11/17/07 6:58 PM >>>


Begin forwarded message:

From: George Sadowsky <george.sadowsky () attglobal net>
Date: November 17, 2007 4:33:27 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: [IP] Re:   U.N. conference ponders Internet's future

[for IP if you like]

Dave,

Having just returned from the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio,
I must say that the contents of Jack Chang's article do not adequately
characterize the event or the audience.

There were 1300 people who showed up, from 109 countries.  Many of the
were governmental and NGO representatives. The IGF is not a planning
body, as Chang asserts, but a forum for discussion, and it must stay
that way.  It was set up as a compromise result of the WSIS (World
Summit on the Information Society) conferences in Geneva in 2003 and
Tunis in 2005.  The negotiation over the summit statement and the
terms of reference of the IGF were  not the friendliest.

A major issue at this year's Forum (the first was in Athens last year)
was U.S. "control" over the Internet,  The Brazilians hammered this
theme until the end, and were aided by the Russians, who announced on
the last day that they would introduce a process in the UN General
Assembly to allow the Internet to transition to intergovernmental
control. Whether that's a credible threat is still to be seen.  There
was a lot of ICANN bashing, since ICANN is the embodiment of that
"control."

The deliberations ranged from serious to ridiculous.  perhaps you
remember the meeting we both attended at the UN at the end of March
2004; this was a continuation of the same.  Political correctness was
the order of the day, with "multistakeholderism" being the word that
would allow disputes to be settled and problems to be solved in peace
and harmony.

All of the main sessions were transcribed by the excellent team that
ICANN uses, and all of the detail is on line at www.intgovform.org. It
makes for fascinating reading, and anyone who wants to protect the
Internet and help it to evolve should read some of this to understand
how representatives, some self-appointed, from other parts of the
world view this technology and the institutions that enable it
presently.

Regards,

George Sadowsky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The At 11:42 AM -0500 11/17/07, David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
> Date: November 16, 2007 12:57:18 PM EST
> To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] U.N. conference ponders Internet's future
>
> Posted on Thu, Nov. 15, 2007
>
> U.N. conference ponders Internet's future
> Jack Chang | McClatchy Newspapers
> last updated: November 15, 2007 07:25:55 PM
>
> <http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/v-print/story/21582.html>
>
> RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - When more than 1,700 technology experts
> from around the world envision the Internet's future, they see cars
> and household appliances that are online, wireless Internet networks
> in remote African villages and astronauts e-mailing one another from
> different corners of outer space.
>
> Such visions of the future were trumpeted at a landmark U.N.
> Internet Governance Forum to plan the next stages of one of the most
> revolutionary communication tools in history. Participants can't
> make binding decisions, but can lay the groundwork for future policy.
>
> Many of the government officials, technology experts and other
> trendsetters at the conference, which ended Thursday, said the
> Internet has only now hit its stride. Key to its future, many said,
> will be bringing online the four-fifths of the globe that still
> lacks Internet access, as well as combating cybercrime and other
> malicious uses of the network.
>
> The next generation of technology is on its way and will make the
> Internet an even more integral part of people's lives, said Vinton
> Cerf, a U.S. computer engineer and one of the fathers of the Internet.
>
> He's now chief Internet evangelist to technology giant Google and
> remains a pioneer. One of his side projects is helping the National
> Aeronautics and Space Administration build an interplanetary network
> that would let astronauts e-mail each other without routing their
> messages through Earth.
>
> "Wherever you are, you'll have the potential to get all this
> information, really all of the world's knowledge," Cerf said. "If
> you don't take advantage of this information available to you and
> others do, you'll have a hard time competing."
>
> Holding up his BlackBerry, Cerf said that such mobile devices would
> soon become the main portal to the network, with global positioning
> systems that tell users where they are and what's around them, no
> matter where they are on the planet.
>
> He also said that molecular-scale computing would become the norm as
> conventional technology bumps into the laws of physics that limit
> how quickly processors run and how compact they can be.
>
> Molecular computing means harnessing the computing power of DNA and
> other biological material to run computers tens of thousands of
> times faster than those with today's conventional processors.
>
> For billions of people in the developing world, however, just
> getting online would be an improvement, said John Dada, the program
> director of a nonprofit Nigerian anti-poverty agency.
>
> More than 4 billion people aren't online, and many of them have
> never sent an e-mail or accessed a Web site, he said. Only 4 percent
> of Africans are online, compared with about four-fifths of U.S.
> residents.
>
> "There is absolute awareness of the Internet in the world," Dada
> said. "The hardware is the problem."
>
> [snip]
>
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