[discuss] NETmundial and CSTD mtg

[Nick Ashton-Hart]

Dear Avri,

As someone who had the 'privilege' of sitting through big parts of CSTD (and all of NetMundial), I see a lot of truth in what you have said. 

What is not there - and this is not a criticism; I don't think you were looking to address it - is the scale of the problem we are facing.

Simply put: a number of countries that previously fought for a states-based IG paradigm would accept a compromise. Post-Snowden, that is largely untrue: success in any multistakeholder venue is now to ensure that the process is a failure.

This cannot be dealt with inside of IG because the problem is a symptom of issues elsewhere. I think we all know what they are - and now the addition of a powerful political imperative because of surveillance.

It shouldn't be this way, but IG is now much more of a hostage to politics rather than a place where compromise can be found and issues explored logically; it was bad before but it is now near the point of seizure. If we don't want the Internet to suffer fundamentally, then we need to look at the underlying issues and be willing to find ways to deal with those underlying issues where there is an option.

I must stress: IG is not the venue for most of these issues to be solved, or even discussed in depth. It has no decision-making venues that can give a solution, and moreover, these other issues are not Internet issues or Internet governance issues at all, but rather broader social issues and need the expertise and experience of those venues and participants who know them.

In the human rights council there is a very productive work plan on privacy and rights online. There is a process beginning at UNESCO, too. There are others; the work of the ECWG has mapped out quite a few of them. 

What we can do within the IG framework is reach out to these institutions and those who participate in them and ask how we can help - and as a concrete proposal, we should ask them all to hold focus sessions at the IGF to help us all understand their work better. As I will not be in Paris for the MAG I hope that some of you who are will take this up.

-- 
Regards,
 
Nick Ashton-Hart
Executive Director, Internet & Digital Ecosystem Alliance (IDEA) 
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On 17 May 2014, at 17:07, Avri Doria <avri at acm.org> wrote:

> 
> My take:
> 
> http://avri.doria.org/post/85948899480/netmundial-was-an-act-of-enhanced-cooperation-cstd
> was not
> 
> avri
> 
> _______________________________________________
> discuss mailing list
> discuss at 1net.org
> http://1net-mail.1net.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

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