[kictanet] is IGF a castrated version of ICANN???

Thu Jul 12 10:16:20 EAT 2007

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 <judyokite at gmail.com> wrote:

> This does not make sense!! Is it meant to be a joke???
> Mr. Walubengo?
> Kind Regards,
> 
> On 7/10/07, Rebecca Wanjiku <rebeccawanjiku at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > makes good reading???
> >
> >
> >
> > ICANN San Juan 2007 After a crazed American federal
> 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
> >
>
src="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/adj/reg.management.4159/itdirector;'+RegExCats+GetVCs()+'pid='+RegId+';'+RegKW+'maid='+maid+';test='+test+';pf='+RegPF+';dcove=d;sz=336x280;tile=3;ord='
> > + rand + '?" type="text/javascript">\x3C\/script>');
> >
> >    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.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Tel. 254 720 318 925
> >
> > blog:http://beckyit.blogspot.com/
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > Got a little couch potato?
> > Check out fun summer activities for kids.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Judy Ann Okite,
> +254-721237507,+254-734252336
> P.O. BOX 2228 00100,
> NAIROBI,KENYA.
> 
> 
> "Even if you are on the right track, you'll still get run
> over if you
> just sit there."
> 
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