[WSIS CS-Plenary] Global Alliance: Consultation

[Ronald Koven]

Dear All --

I think it is simply not credible that all of civil society would speak
with a single voice in this context, and anyone who thinks that it should
or would is unrealistic, has a false esthetic of unity, or is not in fact
democratic.

A person who represented himself as speaking for all of civil society
before an instition dealing with all the issues of Internet governance
would simply not be believed by representatives of government,
international organizations or industry. We shouldn't think we can play
such people for fools.

There may be a disadvantage to speaking with more than one voice. But a
civil society speaking with a single voice on many subjects over an
extended period would have the clear disadvantage of being dismissed by
rational interlocutors as an unlikely apparition.

Rony Koven