The exercise of power, "informal" or otherwise, has expression. And for me, it is the impact that matters. I doubt if NATO or OPEC are very good examples of an antithetical G12. In fact, I posit that an "informal" and "geographically balanced" G12 would look more like a "rump" of the [economic] G20. The G12 idea represents EU's impatience with American suzerainty of the names and numbers system of the Internet. And from where we struggle in the periphery, it is clear this diverges little from the oft-expressed European discomfort with the uni-polar post-Cold War political world and how power is expressed. Your 2nd paragraph captures this very well. If the EU's proffer goes forward, all that the G12 would achieve is to redistribute power in managing the domain name system to the usual suspects and those countries that are now numbered in the rank of the "deserving few". For more than many reasons, read the latter to mean and include China and India. As I see it, the redistribution would be at the expense of civil society actors. But as imperfect as the JPA world is today, there is, at minimum, notable attempts by ICANN to embrace civil society in its councils. And in my view, this development ought to be emphasized, deepened and institutionalized. The post-JPA ICANN future is a grand opportunity to reorder our concept of global governance for what is without doubt global "public goods". But power is as power does. This is not a proposal that fundamenally reforms the old order. Rather, it merely tweaks it at the edge. Carlton Samuels On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 12:54 AM, Sivasubramanian Muthusamy < isolatedn@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello

These are my comments, as an individual:

To progress from G1 to G12 appears to be a good idea. Viviane Reding proposes G12 as "an informal group of government representatives that meets at least twice a year and can make, by majority, recommendations to ICANN where appropriate. To be geographically balanced, this "G-12 for Internet Governance" should include two representatives from each North America, South America, Europe and Africa, three representatives from Asia and Australia, as well as the Chairman of ICANN as a non-voting member. International Organisations with competences in this field could be given observer status.

The idea is that "it is not defendable that the government department of only one country has oversight of an internet function which is used by hundreds of millions of people in countries all over the world". At the same time, the accountability of ICANN due to its "unique position of a global quasi-monopoly... requires global management... [as] monopolies always involve the risk of abuse. And who should ICANN be accountable to? Not the UN, because "decisions on internet governance need to be taken swiftly".

So a G 12.

The G12 for Internet Governance differs from a NATO or OPEC, as it is "informal" and "geographically balanced" with the inclusion of the ICANN chairman as a "non-voting" member with "observer" status granted to International Organizations.

Good progress. But a move by Governments to take over the Internet? Why voting status to the Government 12 and observer status to the International Organizations? I would, in my independent opinion prefer an I 12 for Internet Governance with the twelve governments as Observers....

Sivasubramanian Muthusamy http://isocmadras.blogspot.com(the comments above are my own, entirely my own, as an individual)

On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 10:56 PM, Meryem Marzouki <marzouki@ras.eu.org>wrote:

...

Viviane Reding recommendation on IG: - A fully privatized and independent ICANN - Judicial review (complaints) "by a small, independent international tribunal" (instead of California court) - (Governmental) Oversight by a "G12" (geographically balanced) http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/reding/video/index_en.htm

So, progress on multilateral oversight. Business (and when I say business, I really mean the business sector) as usual on other issues. IG seems to be seen as a consumer issue only.

Enjoy! Meryem

-- Meryem Marzouki - http://www.iris.sgdg.org IRIS - Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire 40 rue de la Justice - 75020 Paris

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