[discuss] JustNet Coalition contribution on Roadmap for the further evolution of the internet governance ecosystem for Netmundial.br

[S Moonesamy]

Hi Parminder,
At 00:35 14-03-2014, parminder wrote:
>To understand how the proposal from Just Net Coalition helps 
>developing countries one needs to first understand 'what and who' 
>shapes the evolution of the Internet today, as the Internet itself 
>shapes our larger social structures, whereby the impact of this 
>'what and who' goes rather far and deep...
>
>To keep it brief, it is my understanding that the following key 
>political and economic forces shape the Internet today, in the 
>decreasing order of impact;
>
>Extravagant profit motives of a few global corporation, almost all US based;
>
>The laws and policies of the US, which are enforced, overtly and 
>subtly, on these global corporation; and,
>
>Policy framework of some clubs of rich countries, like the OECD and 
>CoE (for instance, OCED's principles for Internet policy making).
>
>There is huge nexus between 1 and 2, which together constitute the 
>most powerful, in fact, quite overwhelming, force shaping the 
>Internet today. Meanwhile, the US is largely able to bull-dodge its 
>way with regard to 3 above as well.

Thank you for the explanation.

>Apart from the above, Internet technical standards and critical 
>resource management bodies, also have a strong impact. These bodies 
>have swung between doing extremely good work to frequent capture by 
>the above corporate interests. In my view, their public policy 
>oversight while important is relatively the lesser problem right now 
>as compared to other issues listed above.
>
>Now, before we move forward to frame a response to the basic 
>question you asked, 'how does the Just Net Coalition's (JNC) 
>proposal help developing countries', we need to form some level of 
>agreement on two propositions.
>
>The above is largely the right picture of the forces that are 
>shaping the Internet today.
>
>Things are not going in the right directions with the evolution of 
>the Internet vis a vis canons of equity and social justice (for 
>instance, 10 top websites had respectively 25, 50 and 75 percent of 
>the total page views in the US in 2000, 2005 and 2010, and things 
>have gone considerably worse since).
>If you strongly disagree with either of the above two propositions, 
>JNC's proposal will make no sense to you. But if you do agree, there 
>is a lot of ground for us to look at remedial political solutions. 
>And I am ready to take up such a discussion, admitting that our 
>proposed solution may only be one among many possible, and even 
>perhaps not the best one. Our group, in its collective wisdom, 
>thought that what is needed in the current context is an 
>counter-magnetic field to the highly dominant forces today, that 
>would be created by developing an anchor point inside the UN system 
>which begins to undertake normative discussions on issues of 
>Internet policies, and where needed comes up with higher norms and 
>principles (as OECD has come up with), policy frameworks, and as and 
>when needed, binding conventions and treaties.As happens with every 
>sector in the UN, it will be much more about developing higher norms 
>and principles, much fewer policy frameworks and rather infrequent 
>conventions or treaties....

I consider the internet as much more than the web.  At the moment I 
do not have any way to provide input into a UN system.  The relevant 
government does that.  I have been given the privilege to provide 
input in one of the technical standard bodies which has been 
mentioned in here.  I exercise that privilege once in a while.  I 
probably would not do the above; it's not about disagreement.

>Such a counter magnetic field alone can even begin balancing the 
>lopsidedness of the current political and economic model around the 
>Internet, and it goes to reason that such a balancing will serve the 
>interests of developing countries, in fact of all marginalized 
>groups everywhere in the world.I hope you agree.

I will wait to hear the other propositions which aim to help 
developing countries.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy