Grabbing at governance by Wendy Grossman

Someday the development of Internet governance will look like a continuous historical sweep whose outcome, in hindsight, is obvious. At the beginning will be one man, Jon Postel, who in the mid-1990s was, if anyone was, the god of the Internet. At the end will be…well, we don’t know yet. And the sad thing is that the road to governance is so long and frankly so dull: years of meetings, committees, proposals, debate, redrafted proposals, diplomatic language, and, worst of all, remote from the mundane experience of everyday Internet users, such as spam and whether they can trust their banks’ Web sites.

Someday the development of Internet governance will look like a continuous historical sweep whose outcome, in hindsight, is obvious. At the beginning will be one man, Jon Postel, who in the mid-1990s was, if anyone was, the god of the Internet. At the end will be…well, we don’t know yet. And the sad thing is that the road to governance is so long and frankly so dull: years of meetings, committees, proposals, debate, redrafted proposals, diplomatic language, and, worst of all, remote from the mundane experience of everyday Internet users, such as spam and whether they can trust their banks’ Web sites.But if we care about the future of the Internet we must take an interest in what authority should be exercised by the International Telecommunications Union or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or some other yet-to-be-defined. In fact, we are right on top of a key moment in that developmental history: from December 3 to 14, the ITU is convening the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT, pronounced “wicket”). The big subject for discussion: how and whether to revise the 1988 International Telecommunications Regulations.
http://www.pelicancrossing.net/netwars/Also see:Greenpeace and ITUC warn of government control over Internet
Greenpeace and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) have added their voices to an increasing number of organizations concerned about the impact on the Internet of a United Nations conference to be held next month.A joint letter sent by the two organizations to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon complains that the conference will seek to “impose solely governmental control” over the Internet and calls for him to intervene.
http://news.dot-nxt.com/2012/11/12/greenpeace-and-international-t

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