[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [governance] geneva

[Milton Mueller]

Wolfgang's comments here are (as usual) very perceptive and 
I am glad he called attention to the Chinese statement (which 
I, in haste, left out of my article)

I would simply like to point out that he may give it too optimistic a 
spin. While we (CS) were accepted as commentors and contributors 
to the session, there was in fact almost no support for the IGC 
proposal for an equal division of CS, private sector and govts. It was 
not only the traditionalist, developing country governments like China
that rebuffed us here, but especially the European Union and
Japan. The USA did not touch the issue, and neither did ICANN. 
Both ISOC and ICANN failed to explicitly endorse the IGC process
proposal. I think that was definitely a mistake on the part of ISOC,
however, I can understand why a beleagured ICANN would not 
want to risk antagonizing governments even further. 

But, since Wolfgang was around in the darker days of the early
WSIS Prepcoms and I was not perhaps he sees what was accomplished as
significant progress.

--MM

>>> Wolfgang Kleinwächter <wolfgang at imv.au.dk> 09/22/04 07:13AM >>>
1. we made a great step forward with the multistakeholder approach.  
While the participation of non governmental groups in the governmental 
Internet Governance Working Group from PrepCom2 to PrepCom3bis++ was 
blocked and we were moving through the revolving door, in the WGIG 
meeting in Geneva it was taken for granted that governmental and 
non-governmental speakers are communicating on the same level. When