[At-Large] Seeking roll back of the IGF Leadership Panel

Thu Nov 25 17:52:26 UTC 2021

On Thu, Nov 25, 2021 at 10:37 PM Carlton Samuels via At-Large <
at-large at atlarge-lists.icann.org> wrote:

> +1.
>
> At minimum, the UNSG's action intuitively suggests a yearning for some
> long-held vision on outcome.
>
> CAS
>

+1 Carlton. And we must all respect that.

> =====================
> *Carlton A Samuels*
>
> *Mobile: 876-818-1799Strategy, Process, Governance, Assessment &
> Turnaround*
> =============================
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 25, 2021 at 5:16 AM Evan Leibovitch via At-Large <
> at-large at atlarge-lists.icann.org> wrote:
>
>> Disclaimer: I have been to a few regional IGFs but never the global one.
>> I keep a relationship with the Internet Governance bubble and attempt to
>> stay informed, but remain at arms length because of the general detachment
>> of this bubble from society at large. These days I only get involved when
>> something really egregious happens that directly affects the public
>> interest, such as the PIR/EthosCapital fiasco. I will try to be as brief in
>> my point as possible, but there are many premises behind these conclusions.
>> And while I speak for myself, I have had many conversations with people I
>> trust who have come to similar conclusions to mine but just don't dare to
>> express it:
>>
>> To those outside the bubble, IGF only had one job, but it was an
>> important one: Come up with one or more workable ideas for Internet
>> Governance that suffer neither the industry capture of ICANN and ISOC nor
>> the state capture of ITU. At this task, despite more than a decade offered,
>> the IGF has only been notable in its preference of talk over action. So if
>> the IGF in its current form can't execute the one thing it was trusted by
>> the world to do, it is only to be expected that those who created it may
>> lose patience and seek a different approach.
>>
>> As a result ... I applaud the UNSG's exhaustion with the IGF status quo.
>> I am unsure whether his cure is worse than the disease, but there is a
>> disease, make no mistake, one whose main symptom appears to be entropy.
>> It's been nearly 20 years since WSIS with no discernable public benefit yet.
>>
>> This letter asserts that the IGF's role is not to form consensus, which
>> perfectly illustrates the entropy and justifies the UNSG action. It
>> indicates that its participants prefer IGF to forever remain an elitist
>> talk shop among self-appointed experts. That's all well and good for those
>> inside that bubble who enjoy endless bickering as an end in itself, rather
>> than seeking action that would actually improve society. But clearly the
>> UNSG, correctly in my opinion, has determined that going forward "talk"
>> needs to eventually turn to "do". The IGF either needs to (a) reform itself
>> and its mandate into the more-difficult pursuit of outcomes, or (b) go off
>> in a virtual corner to talk amongst yourselves till the end of time,
>> finding another patron who will support that kind of thing, while putting
>> the reform that the IG world desperately needs now in the hands of others
>> ready to take on that role.
>>
>> At very least the letter is highly ignorable in rejecting the UNSG
>> proposal without offering alternative reform. The status quo has expired.
>> If you don't provide an evolutionary path then your patron will do it for
>> you.
>>
>> Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
>> @evanleibovitch / @el56
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 24 Nov 2021 at 10:15, parminder via At-Large <
>> at-large at atlarge-lists.icann.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear All,
>>>
>>> Please find enclosed a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General
>>> appealing to him to roll back the decision for an IGF Leadership Panel.
>>>
>>> The letter is co-signed by Dr Milton Mueller, on behalf  of the Internet
>>> Governance Project, Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public
>>> Policy, and Parmider Jeet Singh, for IT for Change, and the Just Net
>>> Coalition.
>>>
>>> It is cc-ed to representatives of civil society and technical community
>>> groups requesting them to refrain from sending nominations for the IGF
>>> Leadership Panel, and thus legitimizing it.
>>>
>>> The letter argues how the IGF Leadership Panel militates against the
>>> basic idea, objectives and structure of the IGF, and will weaken it.
>>>
>>> Best, parminder
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