Proposal for Discussion concerning an *International Internet Government* (IIG)

["Friedrich Kisters" <fk@tele-net.ch>]

Dear Mr Postel, Dear Internet-friends!

I very much estimate all comments I have had the honour to receive.
The key question is: What do we all want the INTERNET to become?
Of course this question may sound general for some, but it only depends on
the answer.

Thousands of years ago important philosophers like Plato where already
thinking and wirting about an "ideal state". Their attempt had to stay
theoretical, because the reality is too difficult to change.
Today with the development of the Internet we have the first chance to
create a new world-wide-ideal-state without the need of changing any
reality - we can create a new one. We need to find out how this new world
should look like, before we start filling it with the old ideas deriving
from the *real* world. In my eyes we will not be doing a good job, if we
just adopt every need and law that exist in our *real world*.
In this case the Internet would become a slave of the real world, used as a
tool for some needs, without offering new perspectives.

The Internet needs to be internationally based to open up new perspectives.
Otherwise it is better to leave things as they are. The U.S., Jon Postel and
many other have done an enormously important work and should always be
remembered as the founders of this *new world* called Internet. The right
moment has come to do the next big step forward.

I completely agree that it would make sense to have one
organization responsible as "government" for the Internet in general (ftp,
www, ...). This government should be elected on a international democratic
bases.
Each country should get the opportunity to participate in the process. I
have tried to develop an easy system for elections, which gives optimal
rights to everybody involved in the Internet.



The system could work as follows:

1.  National elections of representatives are carried out in each country
having an active country-tld (like: U.S.A. = .us, Germany = .de, Switzerland
= .ch, ...).

a. Upon request each Internet-user receives an Internet-ID, a kind of
passport, a security-string. Only one ID per user is issued.
The users are identified via passport and must be at least 18 year old.
(VeriSign might also be helpful in developing such a system). With this ID
the


Internet user becomes a member of the official Internet-community
(*member*).
b. Each member has one vote. Nobody may vote or be elected without having an
ID.
c.  For each 2 millions of members within each country, one representative
may be elected.
d. The representatives may nominate themselves or may be nominated for
elections
with arguments limited to one page of max 100 KByte of space.
e. It is irrelevant, if representatives live in or have the nationality of
the
country where they want to be elected or if they do not.
f. Every representative can only apply for elections in one single country
at
the time.
g. All representatives who stand for election are registered in a central
election-page. The members may choose their cadidates there.
h. The members can fill in a list of max. 10 candidates, to whom they give
10 voices, if
in first position, down to 1 voices, if in 10th position.
i. Once the members have elected their candidates, an electronically
registered their votes, they have no possibility
to alter their opinion and/or use their vote for a second time during the
same election.
k. The candidates will be elected following to the amount of voices they
received and the number of seats available in the country of their election.
l. Representatives are elected for 4 years and may be elected for several
times.
m. If an elected candidate resigns before new elections take place, the
first candidate having failed to be elected in the latest election will take
his
place until new elections take place (and so on...).

2. The elected representatives form the *board of representatives*, who will
elect 9 leaders, responsible for:

a. Internet-legislation and arbitration (incl. preparation of new laws to be
discussed by the board of representatives)
b. execution of decisions (Internet-Police)
c. general safety and protection of the Internet (Internet-Guard)
d. technical questions and developement
e. inner affairs
f.  external affairs
g. economical questions (and the *Internet-state-bank*)
h. public relations and votings
i. president of the of the 9 Internet-leaders (international relations and
controls)

3. The 9 leaders are elected for 7 years. They can be elected for max. 3
periods without interruption.

4. The official language among all members, representatives and leaders of
the Internet is english.

5. If 10% of the registered members or of the elected representatives of the
Internet ask for a general voting concerning any intended change within the
Internet, such a voting has to be organized within 120 days.

a. Each representative has to explain in short words in his page his opinion
to the members who will vote.
b. The 9 leaders have to agree on one single opinion among themselves. If 5
of the 9 leaders agree on the same opinion this opinion will be binding for
all leaders without exception. This collective opinion as well as an
objective description of all *pro* and *contra* arguments provided by *both
sides* shall be emailed to all members 10 days before the voting-period
starts. The voting period will last 20 days.

6. There will be a voting among the representatives and among all registered
members.

7. The winning opinion needs a majority among the representatives who
participated in the voting (of min. 1
voice) as well as among the members who participated in the voting (of min.
1 voice). If the result of the
voting id equal the opinion of the 9 leaders will decide.

8. The representatives will get a compensation of 6'000.-$/month (just a
suggestion). They work
min. 30 hours/week (just a suggestion). The leaders will get a compensation
of 24'000.-$ (just a suggestion). They
work min. 60 hours/week (just a suggestion).

9. A representative, who does not seem to be able to fulfill his duties
correctly, may be replaced, if the majority of the leaders decide it.

10. A leader, who does not seem to be able to fulfill his duties correctly,
may be replaced immediately, if the majority of the representatives decide
it.

11. Leaders may employ 4-8 consultants of their faith. The max. total of all
saleries of the consultants is 24'000.-$ (just a suggestion). Their salery
may never exceed the
salery of a representative. Their working hours shall never exceed those of
the leaders.

12. Payment will be effected through the Internet-state-bank. All charges,
as e.g. for registration of domain names will be effected to this bank and
all costs will be payed from there.



I think it is high time to really build up an international
Internet-government.
The proposal of Mr. Postel is already very detailed and elaborated and also
the proposal of Mr. Friedman is very
interesting. Above, I have tried to describe another, somewhat different
model, which is not yet very detailed. Please note that this does not mean
that I do not estimate the other proposels.
I just think that the internationality of the Internet should become the
center of any model.

I am looking forward to receiving your comments!

Thank you very much. FRIEDRICH