Re: The public good

[usdh@mail.ccnet.com (steve)]

>>civil servants rather than representatives of industrial and other
>>concerns with a commercial stake in it. This authority is now being
>>transferred almost exclusively to commercial "stakeholders". What will
>>the effect be? Without doubt precisely the same that privatization in
>>other communications media has been, a transfer from the public good to
>>private gain, only on an even larger, more international scale. We have
>>seen this happen with radio, films, and especially television, where
>>control has been allowed to fall into the hands of entrepreneurs whose
>>sole interest is the sale of mediocrity, by definition the only thing
>>that can be sold and consumed massively. The Internet was founded on the
>>principle of diversity, like all that is best about America, and not on
>>privately-controlled mass communication and the conformity it brings,
>>which is the opposite of diversity. The diversity of the Internet is now
>>to be reversed, if something is not done to stop it.
>
>Steve Page:
>        Your comments pose larger questions: Who are we?  What do we want
>to be?  Do we want our external reality to reflect the least common
>denominator of our being? (our primitive selves)  What impact will this
>"dumbing down" have on society long term?  Is it healthy?
>        Our thinking and aware internal selves recognize that there is a
>beauty in Nature's diversity, which we can either allow to flourish, or can
>slowly extinguish.  Will the heavily concentrated Internet be a tool of
>extinguishing diversity.  It seems so.  The process, if allowed to
>continue, will move us toward a value-less, commercial center with little
>representation from those who need to be represented.
>        We have all witnessed the destruction of the environment, the rain
>forests, the extinction of species, why would we expect the Internet to be
>any different?  Because it is about ALL of us.  We are all stakeholders,
>each single person.
>
>Michael:
>>      <snip>
>        In his Suggestions for a New Organizational Structure (07-12-98),
>>Dr. Jon Postel, head of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA),
>>expressed hope that each member of the new controlling Board "should
>>represent the interests of the Internet community as a whole. Once he or
>>she takes a Board seat, they should not be a representative of a
>>specific group, but rather a fiduciary for all those interested in and
>>affected by the operation of the Internet". That hope is forlorn. Board
>>members from corporations, commercial networks, Internet service
>>providers, and other commercial entities represent first and foremost
>>the entities that pay their salaries, and therefore cannot represent the
>>public. If they are the totality or even the majority of members of the
>>new Internet authority, it will be ruled by commercial interests and
>>will not function for the public good.
>
>Steve Page:
>        Exactly.  The proposed structure of the Board is too heavily
>weighted toward maintaining the power of the "builders" of the
>infrastructure, the engineers who have functioned like the road builders of
>the federal highway system.  What is being proposed is the equivalent of a
>governance structure which says, "We, the builders of the Interstate
>Highway System, because we built the system, are going to dominate the
>governance of the system."  That viewpoint is flawed, and that structure is
>flawed.
>        The correct seat of power for the Internet lies in the hands of the
>"drivers", the people who will use the roads, moving themselves (and their
>energy) throughout the system, navigating where they desire, when they
>desire, and for their own purposes.  Company interests should be secondary
>if we are to understand the reality of what has been built.
>        The people in power are either 1) uneducated about the facts, 2)
>unwilling to learn, 3) blinded by elitism and ego, or 4) unwilling to
>listen to individual opinions, 5) a combination of all.
>
>Michael:
>>        Nevertheless, most countries using the Internet on a broad scale
>>abound in public interest groups. These include community lobbies,
>>consumer protection organizations, international, national, and local
>>educational, scientific, and public welfare institutions, libraries, and
>>public sector Internet groups such as user groups, student networks, and
>>senior citizens' networks. Has a place - a controlling place - been made
>>for their representatives on the new Internet councils and boards? If
>>this is not done, and quickly, the Internet will cease to exist in the
>>public interest.
>
>Steve Page:
>        Avoid using the term "public" interest.  The internet is an
>"individual" medium.  It allows one person to speak to another.  It is like
>"air".  The Internet is "electromagnetic air" which transmits the flow of
>energy (oxygen) from one point to another, energy which can help us sustain
>our individual selves in a world where individuals are unified through
>their connectivity to "the air".
>        The use of the term "public good" or "public interest" is a
>misleading term, a vague notion with no "teeth" to support it, so it can be
>used by people in power who are interested in "controlling".  The Internet
>is not about "control".  How does one control "air"????  It cannot be done,
>without grave consequences for individuals.
>
>Michael:
>>        We still have a chance, perhaps our last, to reverse the
>>insidious process of privatization and commercialization of the
>>Internet. Let no one who, through indifference or fear, neglects to
>>speak out now and demand public control of the Internet complain on the
>>day, coming soon, when the great promise of the Internet will have been
>>betrayed and lost.
>
>Steve:
>        Your call to action should be heard worldwide.  It should be
>promoted by any medium which supports the empowerment of individual users
>and their active participation as stakeholders.  Every person in the world,
>whether they are connected at this point in time or not, is a stakeholder
>of the Internet.  Those who would not have any person realize that fact
>would do so for reasons other than for the good of individuals.
>        Please keep writing, and I will keep responding.  The power of
>common sense, truth, combined with the knowledge of how the world actually
>works needs to be understood by those who would exclude the real
>stakeholders, the individual members of the "inner-networked" community.
>        We need a vision of what we want the future to be, this vision
>demands leadership.
>
>>From a June 19 posting...
>
>Steve:
>        Leadership and funding are two sides of the new IANA coin.
>Addressing the leadership side of the coin first, are you sure you are
>asking for *leadership* or are you asking for managerial or administrative
>ability?  The reason I ask is that some people may confuse the two very
>different roles.
>        As I see it, the qualifications of a leader are visibly
>demonstrated by the use words and actions for people who are interested
>enough to observe them doing what they do.  In sports, observers of
>leadership in action might be teammates or spectators or both.  In
>business, leaders are known as entrepreneurs who have the ability to
>recognize a market oppty, and the guts to move on their own. In school
>politics, students recognize qualities in their peers whom they trust to
>represent them.
>        Applying the principles of leadership to choosing a credible
>President or CEO of a non-profit would seem to be difficult.  Why?
>Observers of DNS leadership might be list members, media, or any person
>with enough interest to seek out the participants in the registry industry.
>How many non-profits are involved in that?  Typically, non-profits are not
>known for their leadership.  They exist at the pleasure of profitable
>entities which pay an amount to them and receive some form of benefit for
>doing so.  Typically, non-profits do not need leaders, but
>managers/administrators who can be led by the direction, experience,
>vision, and wisdom of the Board Members.
>        Depending upon the Mission Statement of the non-profit, the
>President/CEO will either be required to be a leader or a manager.  This is
>the first order of business which the operational aspect of the meeting
>should be focused: determining whether the corporation is going to be
>active or passive, centralized or decentralized.  (Traditional IANA has
>been passive in most cases, choosing to work within a centralized trusted
>network of friends and colleagues, which is a polar opposite to the concept
>of inclusion, openness, and democracy where true leadership tends to be
>created from the bottom up, over time.)  Once those decisions are hashed
>out, then identifying individual people who demonstrate the qualities
>*within the domain* can be accomplished.
>        How would one identify qualified leadership for the Board?
>Leadership requirements for a position on the Board would seem to be: the
>ability to articulate a vision which is able to elevate above the noise of
>self-interest and focus on creating a mission statement for the
>organization which addresses the needs of the individual addressee and the
>individual consumer who needs to find someone.  The common denominator is
>the "needs of the individual..."
>        Finding a person with leadership skills focused on *individuals*
>who also possesses domain-knowledge of DNS challenges (intellectual,
>social, political, economic) poses a significant challenge because there
>aren't many people with the combination of knowledge, interpersonal skills
>(ability to build trust over time) to do the job.
>        In my opinion, the leadership required needs to be *intellectual*.
>There is a missing higher level of abstraction and understanding among many
>of the DNS participants of the reality of the role of physics on the
>Internet, with DNS, and with individual human beings.
>        In my opinion, things need to start with physics, the role of light
>(photons) in shaping our collective behavior as we try together to master
>our environment. Survival is the goal of everyone's brain, so therefore a
>goal of every organization's fabric (they are led by people who own
>brains), and therefore every nation state (the same).  It's hard wired into
>every human.  Survival, in a harsh environment now being shaped by the U.S.
>Government's actions affecting DNS means that 'coop'etition, a combination
>of cooperation and competition is now needed. (This is the background of
>why I've harped on 'administrative cooperation and marketplace competition'
>as being "the model" for the IANA corporation.)  The skills required for
>making that happen will be a combination of intellectual ability,
>educational ability, salesmanship, market sensitivity, and the ability to
>receive direction from the board which can be transformed into creative
>action.
>        The first step for the leader will be to focus on the cooperation
>side of the coin. Competition comes later.  Only by recognizing how
>cooperation occurs in nature, in the context of our human instinct of
>survival, can the leader apply the knowledge to create a system which is
>both harmonious with our collective/individual need for survival and
>balanced with our constant human requirement to adapt to a changing
>environment.
>        Some advice to the seekers of Presidents/CEOs who will attempt to
>lead the process called "consensus-building".  Education must come first if
>one is to build consensus.  If it does not come first, then one is held
>hostage by the limits of people's minds.  However, in order to proceed
>forward, humility, curiosity, and willingness to learn precede education.
>Access to information precedes the knowledge necessary to build deep
>understanding. Understanding over time leads to wisdom and intelligence.
>Wisdom and intelligence focused on a clear mission, with path outlined for
>others to follow, will lead to an incremental and evolutionary path toward
>sustained action for participants.
>        Without the intellectual foundation which focuses more on truth,
>wisdom, and understanding (the elements of statemanship) at the highest
>level, everything else we've been doing has been a waste-of-time,in my
>opinion, because it has not clear target (like a simple statement like
>"service to individuals") capsulized into a mission statement that guides
>the fragmented group.
>        Since the missing link is clearly "intellectual", the first step is
>TRULY is creating the "intellectual infrastructure".  Somebody
>instinctively knew that when the Intellectual Infrastructure Fund was
>created way back when, but nobody in the position of power has been humble
>enough to say, "We don't know what the "intellectual part" needs to be," so
>it has been just accummulating, with no clear use.  This is where the
>funding side of the coin meets the leadership side of the coin,
>Intellectual Infrastructure fund.
>        My message to attendees is: if people really want to do something
>valuable at the upcoming conference(s), recognize that the first thing to
>do will be to create and/or gather the intellectual property which can be
>useful to help build a common direction.  Then, the "intellectual
>infrastructure fund" can pay the people who have been doing work to build
>an educational website that can be linked to ALL of the competing forces.
>IANA.ORG's website appears to be a more active site than it's traditional
>passive role of building consensus from within its internal network of
>loyal comrades, but it falls far short from an educational perspective,
>which is the only way to build stability through decentralization (moving
>the power to the edges of the Net.)
>        An educationally-based supra-national or supra-organizational
>solution based on that is the only one that will work in the long term.
>Until an education-first leadership solution is proposed, and an
>education-first leader identified, there's too much polarity being
>demonstrated by the differing factions to achieve any real positive outcome
>from the Board Membership process.
>        To summarize: understanding the relationship between the physics of
>light (photons) and the eye and brain, is the key to understanding how we
>can use the tools of electromagnetic energy in the medium called Internet
>to help serve, shape, and change the relationships between all people and
>all organizations.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Stephen J. Page
>OD MBA BSc
>U.S. Data Highway Corp.
>email: usdh@ccnet.com
>T: 925-454-8624 F: 925-484-0448
>
>(c) Copyright, 1998.  Stephen J. Page.  All Rights Reserved.
>This copyright is designed to authenticate authorship.  Anyone is free to
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