[WSIS CS-Plenary] From News.com: UNITED NATIONS PONDERS NET'S FUTURE

[William Drake]

Hi,

FWIW, I think the constant stream of articles from US journalists and
propagandists about "the UN wants to take over the Internet" is really just
a) lazy reporting and/or b) libertarian disinformation.  Yes, some
governments have said that they'd like to see greater intergovernmental
involvement in tackling public policy issues raised by the Internet, and yes
some have even suggested that ITU should perform the ICANN functions, but
this is hardly the same as saying that "the UN" (meaning what, the
secretariat?) has some nefarious plans to "take over" the Internet that must
be resisted etc.

Nevertheless, I've received a half dozen pointers today to the article below
from various listservs.  The social construction of Internet memes is an
interesting but not always enlightening process....

Best,

Bill



> -----Original Message-----
> From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org]On
> Behalf Of Alan G. Alegre
> Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 10:53 AM
> To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] From News.com: UNITED NATIONS PONDERS NET'S
> FUTURE
>
>
> UNITED NATIONS PONDERS NET'S FUTURE
> (News.com) At a summit this week, delegates from around the world gathered
> to take a preliminary step toward U.N. involvement in some of the
> areas that
> are bedeviling Internet users and governments alike.
> http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5179694.html
> Related Article: UN ICT Task Force Global Forum On Internet
> Governance To Be
> Held In March
> http://portal.unesco.org/ci/ev.php?URL_ID=14347&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&UR
L_SECTION=
201&reload=1080128561