[WSIS CS-Plenary] Bruce Sterling Blog: Merge the UN and the Internet

Taran Rampersad cnd at knowprose.com
Mon Oct 4 06:15:23 BST 2004


Cool. Someone here reads what we do... I was wondering if I would see
this here. 3rd link down in the signature. :)

Rik Panganiban wrote:

> Some not-so-serious Monday morning reading for you all.....
>
> San Francisco writer Bruce Sterling has posted a somewhat
> tongue-in-cheek blog entry on the eco-tech website "Worldchanging"
> where he argues that the United Nations should "marry" the Internet.
> He has some interesting things to say about the deficiencies of the UN
> and the internet, the WSIS process, and the ITU. I.e.
>
>     At WSIS, earnest people are trying hard to make it look like our
>     world's net-transformation is happening on purpose. There might be
>     a tipping point in there -- if enough of them can agree on a
>     societal spirit and a set of online rules. But their rules haven't
>     yet been invented. Why? Because the Web doesn't know what
>     diplomacy is. The Net has got no such idea. The Net's got some
>     social software, collaborative websites and buddy lists, but the
>     Net still lacks any deliberative tools that any diplomat or a
>     parliamentarian would take seriously. There are no sound methods
>     of establishing transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability
>     for online negotiators, in all the major languages. Nobody has
>     addressed that market, because that isn't a market at all -- that
>     is governance.
>
>
> Check it out here:
>
> http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/001314.html
>
> Enjoy.
>
> Rik Panganiban

-- 
Taran Rampersad

cnd at knowprose.com

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