What'd the big problem with the internet? Too much English. From the US-hating The Register:
Ultimately, what came out of a gathering of the (English-speaking) great and the good regarding the internet was two things:
- That the US government recognises it has to transition its role if it wants to keep the internet in one piece (and it then has to sell that decision to a mindlessly patriotic electorate)
- That ICANN has to open up and allow more people to decide its course if it is going to be allowed to become the internet's main overseeing organisation
If you ignore the fact that the conversation only happened within a tiny subset of the people that actually use the internet, everyone can feel quite content in walking away feeling that at least people now understand their point of view.
As a rare non-US contributor, Emily Taylor, Nominet's lawyer, UK citizen, and a member of the IGF Advisory Group told us she felt that "the fact that the meeting took place was as valuable as anything that was discussed".
That much is certainly true. The US has recognised that it can no longer hope to control the internet. The next step is for everyone invited into the party this time to recognise that they too play only a small role in the global revolution that is this jumble of interconnected computer networks.
Tip from Forrest.
