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--></style><title>[Re: Fwd: .....] Read the letter from Condoleeza
that won</title></head><body>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Read the letter that won the internet
governance battle By Kieren McCarthy Published Friday 2nd December
2005 09:07 GMT</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite
>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/02/rice_eu_letter/print.html</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>The World Summit in Tunis last month was
overshadowed by the global argument over internet
governance.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Its biggest controversy came with the
proposition put forward by the EU a month earlier</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>...</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>To have the letter to read is entirely interesting.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>But the conclusion that this 'won' the battle for the US is, for
me anyway, akin to suggesting there is a 'war on terror' that will be
'won.' Sorry, for mixing the steam of that politics into the
steam of this ...</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I appreciate, as I suspect we most all do, that there are about
as many interpretations of the outcomes for WSIS as there are people
offering opinions. Here is (one of) mine:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>In a consensus process, any single entity. large or small, can
stop the show. It seemed clear as far back as two years ago that
the US position would not change. When the outcome is
foreordained by the consensus rule, that is no more a 'win' than, say,
the proverbial 'taking candy from a baby' is a win. The big guy
may have candy, but we knew that would be the case before we saw it
actually happen. A win requires something to be up for grabs, in
advance. But this is semantics, if not sophistry; what matters
here?</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Yes, overt change in the status quo did not appear. But the
main outcome - the event that constituted real motion, and the only
real item in question - was the commitment to a place where there will
be ongoing dialog, the Forum. Kieren McCarthy, the reporter for
the Register who posted the Rice letter story has just today posted a
story that suggests the pressures - seemingly inevitable - to be
exposed going forward: <a
href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/05/minc_icann_letter/">Bush
administration control will cause net to split</a> . In my view
anyway, the McCarthy article today reverses the conclusion he drew
with the Rice letter. Rather than a win, there is just the
reverse - the campaign goes on.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Which, again in my view, gives compelling reason for us to
concentrate on the arrangements for that dialog, particularly the
people and the agenda. But then, what matters, if not people and
agenda?!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Footnote: Another of the - key - 'consequences' of WSIS,
again in my view of course, was a gigantic consciousness-raising,
around the world. Tim Kelly and his team's extraordinary <a
href="http://www.itu.int/wsis/stocktaking/index.html">stocktaking</a>,
with approaching 2,500 reported projects, is testament. As far
as governance was concerned, everyone could read the likelihood that
the US position would not change. If that meant there was less
heat and lather as PrepCom 3bis more or less genteelly rolled to its
final midnight hour, that did not prevent the evolution of thinking on
any number of national fronts around the world, across the several
years. There was a - very - wide conscious-raising, on the
governance front, with some dramatically surprising emergence of new
positions (leading among others to the Rice letter).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>That evolution will surely continue - may we hope so, to arrive
at what must be a most artful understanding of a most complicated
challenge. We need to get this right, and it will not be
easy.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>(In case you wonder, I have previously emailed K McCarthy on this
score.)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>David Allen</div>
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