[discuss] What is MSism?

michael gurstein gurstein at gmail.com
Sun Mar 30 16:14:07 UTC 2014


McTim and all,

I know this discussion has taken place quite extensively on the Governance
e-list but probably it might be worthwhile to have some clarification here
as well, as again we seem to be using the same words but with quite
different meanings.

In most contexts the term "Civil Society" does NOT refer simply to those
people who are left over when you remove all the other
categories/stakeholder groups (e.g. biz, technical and governmental).

Rather it refers to with groupings of people concerned with certain types of
issues -- mostly having to do with things like human rights, social justice,
good governance, and the common good.

For a useful illustration of the kinds of issues which are of interest to
"Civil Society" in most parts of the world and in most policy sectors please
see the attached.

M

-----Original Message-----
From: McTim [mailto:dogwallah at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2014 8:24 AM
To: Pranesh Prakash
Cc: michael gurstein; 1Net List
Subject: Re: [discuss] What is MSism?

Hi Pranesh,

On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 5:55 AM, Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org>
wrote:
> McTim <dogwallah at gmail.com> [2014-03-28 08:07:38 -0400]:
>
>> <cc list trimmed as per good netiquette>
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 10:16 AM, michael gurstein 
>> <gurstein at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Tks McTim,
>>>
>>> That paper does provide some clarity while overall reinforcing my 
>>> central point  -- multistakeholderism transfers power to the 
>>> beneficiaries of the Internet and away from the democracy that gives 
>>> protection to everyone else.
>>
>>
>>
>> Your insistence that MSism is a new pheonomenon in IG ignores the 
>> history of the past 40 years.
>
>
> Who are the "multiple" stakeholder groups in, for instance, the IETF? 
> What role did civil society and business play in policy formulation in 
> IG in these 40 years?  Were they "co-equals" with government?



there are zero groupings in the IETF.

All "stakeholders" come together as co-equals in a WG.

Civil Society (and biz) were the only real actors in IG during the first few
decades, doing the coordination, collaboration, communication, etc needed to
build the network.

I see gov's only really getting involved in the last 15 years or so, with
the France v. Yahoo case perhaps a watershed moment.  (USG funding being an
exception of course).


rgds,

McTim
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