Re: United Nations International Telecommunication Union World Conference on International Telecommunications Conference and Scientific Forums

On 22 December 2012 21:00, Adam Sobieski <adamsobieski@hotmail.com> wrote:

> W3C Technical Architecture Group,
> Philosophy of the Web Community Group,
>
> Greetings. Given the recent contentious United Nations International
> Telecommunication Union World Conference on International
> Telecommunications conference, where it seems that nations disagree about
> the roles of states with regard to the Internet and the Web. At that
> conference, the United States and other nations took a stance against state
> regulation, took a stance for a multi-stakeholder model. If the World Wide
> Web wasn't topic enough before, as we start to discuss digital publishing,
> digital books, digital textbooks, scholarly and scientific documents and
> communication, I wanted to broach whether scientists or technologists
> participating at the W3C have had or have any concerns about foreign or
> domestic government employees, operatives, or participants entangled with
> foreign governments, including governments which have indicated a stance
> that states should have a role, of some sort, in regulating the Internet or
> Web.
>
> I would like to broach the concern that some participants already having
> participated, participating presently, or arriving to participate, might be
> here at the employ or behest of governments, including governments which
> have indicated a stance at the UN ITU WCIT conference with regard to the
> role of the states and the Internet and Web and with regard to the
> regulation of the Internet and Web.
>
> While the history of the Web includes contributors from academia,
> industry, and government, and while numerous varieties of organizations
> exist in the public sector, for example universities, science laboratories,
> and libraries, a discussion could include participants' opinions about
> government participation from some categories of organizations,
> organizations with certain roles, including, but not limited to, regulatory
> organizations or ministries of information, various organizations of
> domestic and foreign governments, and in the context of the new situation
> where nations disagree about the roles of states in regulating the Internet
> and Web.
>

One of the axioms of the web is decentralization.  But, as they say, 'when
you build a decentralized model, centralization always creeps in via the
back door'.  The Web has been fortunate in the last 2 decades, such that
the central elements have allowed it to grow, from 0 to 2 billion people,
in a relatively uninhibited manner.  A drastic change to this governance
model may have risks on the downside, and I think that for every person
that has voiced support, there have been at least 100 opposing.

Short form: 'if it aint broken, dont try and fix it' ...


>
>
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Adam Sobieski
>