[LINK] UN's Internet Hijack ...

[Richard Chirgwin]

Fernando, I've *never* been snide at Vint Cerf for being hired by 
Google. I still haven't exhausted his role in helping the dotcom boom 
along! :-)

Seriously, however: the problem with Internet freedom NGOs is that they 
get ignored. However, establishing some kind of body to forestall the 
ITU probably isn't a bad idea; control in American hands is starting to 
look broken. I think, for example, that ICANN's money-grubbing is out of 
this world. Even the Australian Cancer Council has caught the bug and 
forked out a slab of its administrative dollars for a TLD ... what a scam!

RC

On 19/06/12 3:42 PM, Fernando Cassia wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 2:05 AM, Frank O'Connor <francisoconnor3 at bigpond.com
>>> wrote:
>>> Bottom line: There's not too many bodies out there to speak up for the
>>> Net. Not any more.
>>
>>
> "Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf would be a great spokesman for this
> cause, but being hired by Google would certainly make him a target of snide
> remarks about "representing the interests of established Internet
> corporations, like Google"
>
> The US "Center for Democracy and Technology" (CDT) would also be a natural
> choice, but being Washington DC-based think tank immediately puts it on the
> same category of lots of other phantom NGOs funded by the US govt to
> advance the interests of US corporations... :-/
>
> I say it's time for Internet figures like Vint Cerf, Ethernet inventor Rob
> Metcalfe (3), WWW  inventor Tim Berners-Lee, Linus Torvalds (3) and a
> handful of others, to create a new NGO standing for internet freedoms, with
> a democratic charter that nevertheless requires some internet background to
> keep it technical. And for heaven' s sake, establish its HQ in some neutral
> small country, like Costa Rica or something*... so that nobody can suspect
> it responds to the interests or mandates or the US govt or its
> corporations...Hey,
>
> * it could be New Zealand. (although I bet some Australians wouldn' t be
> too happy due to the "sibling rivalry" seen in sports ;), but hey, it' s a
> small country, nobody can object to that fact **.
>
> FC
> ** "Small country syndrome"
> http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/kiwis-overseas/2
>
> (3) Getting Metcalfe and Torvalds on the same NGO would be a big challenge,
> as Rob once predicted Win2K would kill linux and the "open sores" movement.
> ;)
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