[Air-L] Governments shouldn’t have a monopoly on Internet governance

jeremy hunsinger jhuns at vt.edu
Sat Dec 18 09:42:35 PST 2010


sign the petition below, if you agree with it:) various orgs have signed it, iamcr, etc.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/igf/   
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> 
>> From: GLIGOR1 at aol.com
>> Date: December 17, 2010 7:16:25 PM EST
>> 
>> Subject: Governments shouldn’t have a monopoly on Internet governance  
>> 
>>  
>> Governments shouldn’t have a monopoly on Internet governance
>> 
>> 12/17/2010 07:00:00 AM
>> The beauty of the Internet is that it’s not controlled by any one group. Its governance is bottoms-up—with academics, non-profits, companies and governments all working to improve this technological wonder of the modern world. This model has not only made the Internet very open—a testbed for innovation by anyone, anywhere—it's also prevented vested interests from taking control.
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>> But last week the UN Committee on Science and Technology announced that only governments would be able to sit on a working group set up to examine improvements to the IGF—one of the Internet’s most important discussion forums. This move has been condemned by the Internet Governance Caucus, the Internet Society (ISOC), the International Chamber of Commerce and numerous other organizations—who have published a joint letter (PDF) and launched an online petition to mobilize opposition. Today, I have signed that petition on Google’s behalf because we don’t believe governments should be allowed to grant themselves a monopoly on Internet governance. The current bottoms-up, open approach works—protecting users from vested interests and enabling rapid innovation. Let’s fight to keep it that way.
>> 
>> Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist
>>  

Jeremy Hunsinger
Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
Virginia Tech


Live without dead time.
-graffitti Paris 1968







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