[Chapter-delegates] How do we incorporate China and other countries that are different?

Sun Feb 21 22:37:37 PST 2016

In this context, “North-South” is a term of art used to refer to developed versus less developed countries. As Dave has pointed out in a different post, you could use the term “OCED vs G77”, or whatever, but “North-South” is the most commonly used term.

Regarding the old URSS game of polarization, I believe that you are referring to what was commonly called the Cold War. I’m old enough to have lived that. As in all conflicts, it was not purely one-sided. I never thought that the Berlin Wall would fall in my lifetime. After it fell, I never thought that a new version of the Cold War would be restarted. So yes, the world has changed, but perhaps not as much as we would like.

Regarding the main topic of this discussion, Internet started in the US and was largely developed by US companies. So ISOC, in its early years, naturally was US-centric. As the Internet has spread around the world, there have been more and more ISOC chapters around the world. So ISOC is naturally seeking ways to become more representative of the global Internet user community, while preserving its core values.

The Chapters Advisory Council, which was just created, is intended to be one of the means that will help ISOC to achieve that goal.

Best,

Richard

From: Chapter-delegates [mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of Ricardo Holmquist
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2016 05:57
To: Chapter Delegates
Subject: [Chapter-delegates] How do we incorporate China and other countries that are different?

Dave,

Do you mind to change the speech from North - South to some other term. Russia and China are both in the North, and there are a lot of ISOC chapters in the south, including Australia, all of South America, and some of Africa. For this matters keeping the developed north - poor undeveloped south is just playing the old URSS game of polarization, and this world changed 25 years ago. 

By the way, we have chapters in four of the BRICS countries, that might be a way to approximate to the other one.

Thanks

Ricardo Holmquist

On Sunday, 21 February 2016, Alejandro Pisanty <apisanty at gmail.com <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','apisanty at gmail.com');> > wrote:

Dave,

though this may puncture a balloon, there has been at least one Chinese citizen, national and resident in the ICANN Board. 

Yours,

Alejandro Pisanty

On Sun, Feb 21, 2016 at 10:25 PM, Dave Burstein <daveb at dslprime.com> wrote:

Kathy and folk, with respect

Using the name Internet Society of CHina is tasteless, but there are much more important issues in this discussion. 

China has twice as many Internet users as the U.S. and the gap is growing at 5-8M users per year. Africa is about to pass 315M Internet users, the entire population of the United States. (Cisco data.) Cheap smartphones are bringing two billion more people to the Internet. We all think that's a great thing. 

I do not believe Internet governance (or ISOC) can be effective with the majority of world Internet users excluded. As Ambassador Phil Verveer said to me the night of the ITU WCIT vote, "We must build bridges."

It's time for a Nixon Goes to China move for the Internet. Kathy, Vint or whoever is leading us should be finding a way to work with all nations. Bob Kahn, an Internet Society founder, might be one natural link. He spoke at that conference in China, as did several other Internet Society supporters.

I'm not blind to how many people starved in the 1950's in China, what happened at Tiananmen Square, or the speech limitations in China today. I'm also not blind to what America did in Vietnam or the $billions being spent to buy the U.S. elections. 

I'm sure we all can make lawyer-like arguments here. But it's missing the key issue. We need to solve the North-South divide about the Internet.

In Dubai at the WCIT a few hours before that vote, I asked Larry Strickling why the U.S. was fighting so hard over what seemed to me some very minor issues, at most of symbolic value. He looked at me and asked, "Dave, do you want Russia or China to be running the Internet?" We both went back to work.

Later, I realized I should have said, "Of course I want Russia and China to have a meaningful role. If we continue to exclude them, ultimately the Internet will split." 

I did not know at that time that no Chinese were on the Board of ICANN because that would not be acceptable to the U.S.

The Internet Society should be leading the way. Excluding China - and so many others - I believe will fail.

--------------

Which doesn't say anything about whether this is the right way to handle who is a civil society group. That's a side issue. The big question is whether the ICANN board and the decision makers of all important groups here see more than one side of the North South divide.

Dave Burstein. 

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