Judy, yes, it does make sense. though the language of castration is a bit on the offensive side i would imagine... Nevertheless it is true that IGF, the Internet Governance Forum was concieved at WSIS 2005 as a compromise, safty valve (ref http://intgovforum.org/mandate.htm). This was after members and participants failed to agree on the way forward, particularly with regard to how the internet could be managed more democratically - put in another way, how the American dominant control of the internet (thro ICANN) could be shared out with other interested countries. Indeed IGF has no executive powers and remains a 'talking shop' as critics would say. However, the IGF secretariate believes that its strength is paradoxically because it does lack the executive authority to enforce matters discussed. I know it sounds stupid but if you think about how KICTAnet operates, then u begin to understand the power of IGF. KICTAnet has no executive authority over ICT matters in Kenya, but because of that, members (civil society, govt, academia, media, consumers, individuals, etc) are free to shout their grievances in an open, informal and sometimes careless manner. And more often than not, those with executive power tend to pick out important messages and get to act on them - sometimes they do so immediately other times much later on, and yes ofcourse sometimes never. And so it is with the IGF, it is a global forum for 'venting it out' in a sort of diplomatic way, and many times ICANN (the one with executive control over the Internet) gets to pick out the issues and considers some if not most of them accordingly. walu.
a visit to the
therapist's office a visit to the therapist's office.
--- Judy Okite <[email protected]> wrote:
This does not make sense!! Is it meant to be a joke??? Mr. Walubengo? Kind Regards,
makes good reading???
ICANN San Juan 2007 After a crazed American federal
On 7/10/07, Rebecca Wanjiku <[email protected]> wrote: prosecutor wreaked havoc
on the Puerto Rican roads by wiping out on his motorcycle at 3am doing 105 mph, immobilizing traffic for ten hours on a major highway, I walked four miles on Thursday morning along the beach to the site of the ICANN meeting. I made it just in time to the Caribe Hilton for the internet governance workshop. Sure glad I caught this one. if (document.getElementById('MidArticleSlot')) document.write('\x3Cscript
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In the beginning ... uh, were the critical...uh... internet resources... ahm well... we'll get back to that at the Rio conference in November. Sort of like Adam wandering around the garden labeling things, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is still working on its reason for being here. The IGF was created out of whole cloth by the UN as a kind of internationalized counterweight to perceived excessive American influence at ICANN, and yet no one in attendance, even those who participate in the IGF, are quite sure what the IGF even does - apparently it's still defining its fundamentals. A good chunk of this mercifully short session consisted of participants half-heartedly trying to define what constitute "critical internet resources" - the protection of which they've decided is essential to their core mission, and which is topic numero uno at the upcoming Rio event. The truth is really out there, right? This session in theory was about more than the IGF, but in practice it consisted mostly of a discussion about the extent to which the IGF and ICANN serve overlapping or even contradictory purposes. There seemed to be a rather diplomatic consensus that the two institutions complement each other, but after sitting through an hour of discussion on the subject, this correspondent still has absolutely no idea what the IGF actually does - or if it even has the power to do anything at all. Is it a gripe forum, kind of like those bitter websites American trademark attorneys are always trying to shut down? Is it just a glorified networking event? Who knows? If I make it to the Rio forum, I'll be sure to let everyone know. Although this topic looked appetizing on the schedule, it's clear that the IGF has a lot of work to do if it is to be considered anything more than a highly vocal yet castrated version of ICANN. Indeed, the IGF bares an uncanny resemblance to that other impotent, internationalized and highly vocal institution, the UN General Assembly. That's not to say that it does not have value - it's just the political equivalent to a visit to the therapist's office. We all need to get stuff off our chest from time to time.
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"Even if you are on the right track, you'll still get run over if you just sit there."
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