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<DIV><SPAN class=130153913-17022004>Perhaps of interest to someone outside the
IG caucus...</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=130153913-17022004></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> William Drake
[mailto:wdrake@ictsd.ch]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, February 17, 2004 1:22
PM<BR><B>To:</B> Governance<BR><B>Subject:</B> ITU IG meeting next
week<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=220255311-17022004>Hi,</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=220255311-17022004></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=220255311-17022004>Since there has been some concern expressed
about who is the ITU inviting, what's the hidden agenda, etc., people might be
interested to know that in fact this all appears to be pretty loose.
Indeed, I got a call last week from ITU saying who are these people who've asked
for invitations as experts (ITU says most approached them about participating,
rather than the reverse), how do we use them, and what makes sense as an
agenda? So I spent a day over there with staff and a Swiss government rep
helping with planning and really, if there is a hidden agenda beyond the obvious
fact that there are ITU parties that generally would like to see ITU play more
of a role, it sure wasn't obvious. Utsumi told them to organize a meeting
so they were rushing to do so with the relevant staff heading out of town and
members being slow to reply to the invite. Notably, at least at that
point, most of the confirmed government representatives seemed to be people
popping over from the Geneva missions, rather senior decision makers from
national capitals---perhaps an indication of the significance they attach to
this event, in contrast to say this summer's Council meeting. Of course,
this could change and maybe the concerned parties will try to organize a real
full court press, but it's not obvious when over the two days this would happen
and what it could entail. If you look at the agenda that has just been
posted, </SPAN><SPAN class=220255311-17022004><SPAN
class=220255311-17022004> <A
href="http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/forum/intgov04/agenda.html">http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/forum/intgov04/agenda.html</A>,
it's just one panel of speakers after another and then we're done---an ITU
workshop, not a negotiation, just like the one I'm attending here today on
spectrum management. Also, it's worth underscoring that all of the CS IG
caucus members in attendance now have speaking roles, so while we don't have a
designated caucus rep speaking as such, we can hardly say that the sort of
views held in this group will not be represented.</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=220255311-17022004><SPAN
class=220255311-17022004></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=220255311-17022004><SPAN class=220255311-17022004>In sum, it's
good that we'll be able to weigh in on the discussions, but in the end this
seems unlikely to be of intergalactic importance. Maybe some member reps
will come away with different understandings of Internet governance, maybe they
won't, but they will not be in a position under the ITU treaties to make any
important decisions in either case.</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=220255311-17022004><SPAN
class=220255311-17022004></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=220255311-17022004><SPAN
class=220255311-17022004>Best,</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=220255311-17022004><SPAN
class=220255311-17022004></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=220255311-17022004><SPAN
class=220255311-17022004>Bill</SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=220255311-17022004></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">******************************************<o:p></o:p></P>
<H5 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"><FONT
size=3>William J. Drake<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></H5>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Geneva,
Switzerland<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><A
href="mailto:wdrake@ictsd.ch">wdrake@ictsd.ch</A> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><A
href="http://www.citi.columbia.edu/affiliates/wdrake.htm">http://www.citi.columbia.edu/affiliates/wdrake.htm</A>
<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Director, Project on the
Information Revolution<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>and Global Governance<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Senior Associate, International
Centre for Trade<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>and Sustainable Development <A
href="http://www.ictsd.org/">www.ictsd.org</A> <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p></o:p></P><SPAN
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