[kictanet] Internet humbles UN telecoms agency

[Grace Githaiga]

...Under increasing pressure, the ITU at first dismissed the complaints before belatedly trying to open up. But it was too little too late. If the preparatory work was out-of-step with modern policy systems, attendees to the meeting were stunned to find a conference style and approach stuck in the 1970s.A constant stream of information was available only in downloadable Word documents; disagreement was dealt with by increasingly small, closed groups of key government officials; voting was carried out by delegates physically raising large yellow paddles, and counted by staff who walked around the room; meetings ran until the early hours of the morning, and "consensus by exhaustion" was the only fall-back position. Government speakers spent long hours debating single words and playing strategic games with one another, pushing everyone closer and closer to the end of the conference without tackling any of the main points of contention.
Read more on WCIT: http://news.dot-nxt.com/2012/12/14/internet-humbles-un-telecoms-a 		 	   		  
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