[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: WSISII, Free Access to Information, Search Engines

[Vittorio Bertola]

Il giorno dom, 09-01-2005 alle 21:04 +0100, Dr. Francis MUGUET ha
scritto: 
> If there are not statements about the technology being used, then we are 
> dealing with
> vague and inefficient declarations of intent.
> It would be a good occasion in the second phase of the WSIS to make more
> precise statements and propose technological solutions.

I share this point, but I am also worried that (correct me if I'm wrong)
among most stakeholder representatives at WSIS there does not seem to be
the necessary knowledge to hold a discussion on very technical
measures. 

Perhaps an alternate solution would be ensuring that the technical
governance mechanisms for the various issues are actually multilateral,
so that we can later send the right technical people to participate in
the technical discussions. 

Or, the Summit could point out areas in which technical actions have to
be defined and then ask for the creation of specific working groups,
much like it was done for the WGIG.

> Partly true, but if Google misuses its power, but it could be punished
> very quickly, ... I tend to believe that people could
> switch very easily to another search engine that is better,
> or simply more fashionable.
> People switched very quickly from Altavista to Google. 
> The situation is quite fluid and is not similar to the situation
> with software ( Operating systems or applications ).

I don't think that this would actually work. Google is becoming more and
more like a television broadcaster - it selects the content you should
watch. If it started to alter results in a not too evident way, I think
that most users wouldn't even notice - exactly like most users are not
easily able to detect reality alterations made in TV news and shows.

[...]
> I hope the DOI question would be dealt with at the WGIG, before it is 
> too late.

We could raise it, but we have to be sure to which macro-issues it
pertains (privacy? consumer rights? accessibility of information?) and
which governance framework we would advocate for it.
-- 
vb.             [Vittorio Bertola - v.bertola [a] bertola.eu.org]<-----
http://bertola.eu.org/  <- Prima o poi...